


baby jongho

by choijongho



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Baby Jongho, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Other, everyone loves jongho, i don't claim to be a good writer, jongho best baby, there are chapters with gay couples but im not tagging any, this is for the deprived of cute and baby jongho atiny's
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choijongho/pseuds/choijongho
Summary: jongho being cute/baby with his ateez members, feel free to request something or leave a comment :)
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Everyone
Comments: 34
Kudos: 126





	1. intro

hello baby jongho enthusiasts. I think i am not alone when i say that there is a massive drought in baby jongho fics. I've searched high and low but other atiny only ever see him as this macho muscle man which makes me s i c k. 

baby jongho nation rises at dawn, and i am here to provide food for us. please enjoy my terrible writing and self stolen idea from my other fics. feel free to request something too. literally anything! well anything soft and cute.


	2. j

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & wooyoung

jongho woke up in a good mood today. while he was usually the first one awake in the group, today he had woken up pretty late. it was already 11 am when he rolled out of bed. he walked out to the living room to find it surprisingly empty. he then walked to the kitchen where he knew someone must of been as he could smell food being made. he walked in and saw wooyoung standing by the stove cooking something. he walked behind him and hugged him wishing him a good morning. wooyoung smiled when the small boy hugged him. he turned around and took note of how cute he looked. it was a known fact that the hyung’s of the group loved to brag about their maknae and how precious he was. wooyoung recalls various times where he was the one bragging as well. it was hard not to, jongho was the living embodiment of cute and sweet.

jongho sat down at the table and rested his head on his arms while he waited for wooyoung to finish cooking. he noticed how quiet it was and that was never usually a good sign as they were a pretty loud group of people. he closed his eyes letting the thought slip away and smiled, like he always does. he was comfortable.  
wooyoung almost dropped the plates he was holding when he turned around. jongho would never fail to make his hyung’s heart hurt, even if it was the simplest thing he was doing. they often told a joke about how he could just breathe and everyone would be all over the boy. he set down the plates, and may or may not of taken a few pictures of the boy before shaking him awake. they ate with light conversion until jongho asked where everyone else was. wooyoung explained that they all went off doing whatever they wanted as they had some time off. something seemed to click in the young boy as he suddenly asked if they could go to the park. he smiled extra wide showing off his beautiful smile. jongho knew he practically had all his hyung’s wrapped around his little fingers with his smile (he has all of us whipped I cannot lie) and usually he never took advantage of it but sometimes he couldn’t help it.

wooyoung melted, immediately shaking his head yes. he would usually never go to the park, he thought. little children screaming, ants everywhere and the grumpy old parents who didn’t look after their kids. but if jongho wanted it he would be more than happy too. they finished up their food and set off to their respective rooms to get ready. wooyoung walked to the living room when he was done to find jongho practically bouncing with excitement. they put their shoes on and left quickly. wooyoung had to quicken his steps to keep up with how fast jongho was walking. he had a lot of energy today, wooyoung noted. they reached the park soon enough and jongho bolted for the swings noticing they were empty. he sat down and attempted to start getting a swing in but pouted when he couldn’t. he could never seem to get his legs to kick properly. he looked up at his hyung and begged with his eyes for him to push him. wooyoung didn’t even hesitate before he found himself behind the boy and lightly pushing his back.

jongho, although he could never do it himself, always loved the swings the most. the feeling of butterflies when you get up high and start dropping. the wind rush that makes you feel like you are on a rollercoaster, and he also felt really tall on the swings. he could get a good view of everything from them. he let out small giggles every time the butterflies came and kept his famous smile the whole time. wooyoung felt like jelly, he wanted to bottle his small laugh and replay it forever. how could someone so precious and adorable exist? wooyoung always told himself that if he were to ever have kids he hoped they could resemble jongho somewhat. he was always so happy with life and usually had no complaints. he knows that he goes through stuff just like everyone else his age, and he knows that he along with everyone else in the group do gush over him and baby him excessively. but could they help it when jongho was basically a baby despite his age? he knows one day he will become more mature and grown, but he didn’t like thinking of that. for now jongho was his little baby and he would give him everything from the moon and back to keep him happy.


	3. o

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & san

most everyone in ateez were sitting in the living room waiting for seonghwa to finish making breakfast. a random movie was playing on the tv. everyone was just messing around either on their phone or with someone else. san looked up from his phone when he heard a shuffle come from the entrance of the living room. jongho stood in an oversized sweatshirt that looked like a dress on the small boy. he had fluffy socks on his feet and his hair sticking up in various directions. his hands were balled up in sweater paws, rubbing at his eyes while he yawned.

san couldn’t help but coo, jongho was way too cute for his heart to handle. “come here sweetheart,” he called out to him causing the other occupants of the room to look up from whatever they were doing. jongho shuffled over to san who sat with his arms open. he sat down on his hyungs lap, immediately curling his body into san’s warmth. his eyes closed and he placed his head on san’s chest. still in his sleepy state of mind he let himself fall back asleep as san rubbed his back slowly. jongho isn’t sure how long he slept but he eventually feels someone lightly shaking him telling him that breakfast is ready. 

still sleepy jongho just whines while adjusting his position in his hyung’s lap. he can feel san chuckling from underneath him. “is our baby still sleepy huh?,” san asked, carding a hand through the smaller boys hair. jongho lets out a sound of being content and just weakly nods his head as a reply to san question. jongho felt like he could sleep all day and night with how tired he was. he’s so tired and out of it he doesn’t notice san lifting him up in his arms. he doesn’t feel san sitting down with himself on his lap still leaning on him. he doesn’t hear everyone’s coos or the clicks coming from hongjoong’s phone camera. his eyes remain closed even when san starts feeding him breakfast. he can’t remember anything after he heard san telling everyone he was going to put him to bed.


	4. n

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & yunho

yunho was quick to nominate himself to wake up jongho early one morning.he just had this feeling of wanting to baby him all day. while he usually does give the young boy all his love and attention , the feeling was just extra strong that day. 

he slowly walked to jongho room peeking in the already opened door. he could see soft pieces of hair sticking out from jongho’s blanket that covered his face. he pulled back his blanket and came across the adorable baby sleeping face jongho had which only intensified him feeling the need to baby him all day. he slowly pressed a gentle kiss to the boys forehead and lightly tapped his arms. the boy stirred for a few seconds until he opened his eyes.

upon seeing his yunho hyung smiling down at him when he woke up, jongho smiled right back at him let out a small giggle. he put his hands out asking to help him get up. yunho simply scooped down a little and just hoisted jongho up on his hip. jongho laughed softly and buried his head on his shoulder. they walked out to the living room and cuddled for a little until breakfast was ready. yunho pulled jongho in on his lap and feed him his food, he felt like a mother today and kept getting these waves of emotions that he couldn’t describe. but he liked them. 

maybe this is what hongjoong and seonghwa feel all the time? he thought. after breakfast yunho once again lifted the boy and walked them to the game room where they played games for a little while. he of course purposefully let jongho win every time, even though he was very competitive when it came to games, it was worth losing to see his baby’s precious smile. once they had lunch jongho wanted to watch a movie. yunho sat on the couch with the younger cuddled up to his side. a little before the movie was about halfway through he felt the younger relaxing into his side more and started carding his free hand through jongho’s hair. 

yunho knew the younger loved it when people played with his hair. he kept doing that for maybe another ten minutes until he heard the even breathes of the boy. he made sure to take multiple pictures from different angles to send to their ‘jongho protection squad’ group chat they all had. everyone except jongho used it. it was a chat used solely for sharing cute pictures of him. later on when jongho woke up he wanted to go to the park and yunho was quick to say yes. they got dressed in nicer clothes and left for the park. before they could even walk down the hallway, yunho bent down in front of the boy offering a piggy back ride. jongho loves when his hyungs give him piggy back rides, especially chan, so he happily jumped on yunho’s back. 

jongho’s laughter vibrating as yunho ran through the park, jongho still on his back. he eventually let him down so they could sit on the swings. it was quite empty in the park that day so they just kept mostly silent and enjoyed the sound of nature. later on at nighttime jongho insisted on sleeping in yunho’s much larger bed, and how could he resist when the boy was being that cute? they smiled throughout the night and woke up still smiling. yunho would of clung to the boy all day again if it wasn’t for hongjoong who came in and stole him as soon as they woke up


	5. g

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & mingi

jongho couldn’t sleep. his room was freezing and all he had was a thin blanket because his thick one was never switched from the washing machine when he was doing laundry earlier. no matter how many layers he wore it felt like jongho was in antarctica. he slowly got out of bed wrapping the small blanket around himself. he walked out of his room into the dark hallway and walked towards the storage closet. upon finding no extra blankets he frowned and closed the door just a little too loudly. 

he sunk down the wall hugging his shaking body for some kind of warmth. down the hall mingi woke when he heard a door being slammed shut. he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and checked the clock on his bedside table. 2:27 am. who was up this early? he stood out his warm bed and walked to the door. peering his head out into the hallway he looked both ways almost not noticing the lump on the ground near the storage closet. who was that? he walked closer and immediately recognized who the shaking body belonged to. 

mingi bent down petting the boys hair. “what are you doing up jongie?,” he asked him. jongho looked up noticing someone was with him now. he felt bad for waking his hyung. “ i’m sorry hyung I- i just was really cold in my bed and - and I couldn’t find another blanket , I - I didn’t mean to wake you i’m so sorry,” he stumbled out still shaking. mingi’s heart hurt hearing jongho feel bad for something he couldn’t control.

“oh baby, no don’t feel bad, hyung was just worried,” he told him. he bent down some more and scooped the shaking boy into his arms hugging him. feeling the warmth from mingi, jongho wrapped his arms around the older and nuzzled his face into his chest. he was like a heater , he didn’t want to let go. noticing the younger’s action, mingi picked up the boy and carried him back to his room. 

he placed him on his bed and climbed in next to him. the smaller boy wrapped himself around mingi and sighed in delight when the thick blanket was placed on top of him. he slept like a baby the rest of the night. the next day mingi went out and bought as many blankets as he could. he also made sure to turn the heater up at night time.


	6. h

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & seonghwa

jongho sat watching the tv while his hyungs sat on the couches behind him. he was oblivious to the fact that the show he was watching was intended for children. his hyungs found it absolutely adorable, often looking up from their phones to look at jongho. he truly is their baby and nobody could tell them otherwise. lost in his show, jongho didn’t notice his stuffed bear given to him by mingi had slowly been raised to his mouth subconsciously by himself. seonghwa looked up from his book and cooed at the youngest, he looked precious with his bear in his mouth but seonghwa knew it couldn’t stay there. being seated the closest to jongho, seonghwa leaned forward and softly tugged the bear from his mouth. “hey bub, bear doesn’t go in your mouth, okay?,” he told the younger as he turned to look at him. “okay hyungie,” jongho turned back to the tv while seonghwa went back to the book he was reading.

the next day seonghwa was in the kitchen cooking while jongho sat at the table watching a video from his phone. jongho didn’t know why but he felt the sudden need to suck on something. looking around and not finding anything, he goes with his only option, his thumb. five minuets later, seonghwa turned around to announce that lunch was ready. he spotted jongho sucking his thumb and felt the urge to wrap him up in a blanket and hold him forever. but he knew that sucking on your thumb isn’t good, so he slowly walked over to the small boy and gently took his thumb from his mouth. “i’m sorry baby, but that isn’t good for your thumb or mouth,” he tells him. jongho pouts but nonetheless nods his head showing he understands. 

the next day seonghwa is walking around waking up his “children, baby, and hongjoong” as he calls them. after successfully waking most of his children , and hongjoong , he makes his way to the youngests room. he walks over to jongho’s bed noticing that he was sleeping towards the wall. he peers over the small boys body and notices his thumb in his mouth again. that’s the third time he has seen him sucking on something. maybe he should get him something , like a pacifier. he decided that he will talk to hongjoong about it later. he softly pets jongho’s hair and shakes up until he wakes up. later on when everyone is off doing their own thing, seonghwa pulls hongjoong aside and tells him what he’s been noticing with jongho. they both agree it’s precious but also not good for him. seonghwa suggest buying a pacifier for him and hongjoong almost melts at the idea. he shakes his head vigorously chanting yes. he can already hear his heart exploding from how cute that would be.

later on seonghwa goes out to buy a pacifier , he found one with a bear on it and couldn’t help himself from buying it. around night time seonghwa pulled jongho aside before he got ready for bed. he handed him the pacifier explaining that he should use it instead of his finger, and the younger agreed happily. the next morning when jongho came downstairs where everyone else was sitting , the house almost erupted into chaos. he had on a bear sleeping onesie that matched with his bear pacifier. everyone clutched their hearts and could feel their insides melting. ever since that morning the whole house would pursue the young boy to wear his pacifier all the time.


	7. o

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & yeosang

jongho woke up with a start. loud claps of thunder boomed from outside and harsh rain hit his window. he usually didn’t mind storms if they were mild, but this one was intense. he shook under his blanket trying to cancel out the outside world and fall back asleep. he tried everything from headphones and pillows covering his ears. he could still hear the storm and it sounded like it was only getting worse. he doesn’t know when he started crying but it doesn’t stop. tears rolled down his face nonstop.

yeosang always had this kind of motherly sense. he could tell when someone was feeling sad or angry. he just knew. so when he suddenly woke up that night , he knew it wasn’t from the raging storm happening outside. he slipped out of bed walking to the hallway. he quietly opened each door checking on the sleeping boys inside. upon reaching the last door he heard it. the terrified sobs from one of the rooms occupants filled his ears. he opened the door and spotted jongho’s bed. he could see a shaking body from underneath the blanket and the loud sobs that surprisingly hadn’t woken up anyone else. he walked over to the boy with a frown on his face. he doesn’t like seeing any of them cry, especially the youngest. he sat down on the edge of the bed and bent down to hold the boy in a tight hug. the young boy sat up and crawled onto yeosang’s lap, burrowing his head on his shoulder while wrapping his arms around him. yeosang kept a tight grip on the boy while running a hand on his back in a comforting manner. he whispered softly to the boy telling him that he was okay and he was safe. “i’ve got you darling, nothing can hurt you while i’m protecting you,” he told him. 

jongho’s position never changed he just stayed on his lap crying in his shoulder. they stayed that way for maybe thirty minutes when yeosang heard jongho’s cries quiet down. he was probably tired. he decided to sing in an attempt to get the small boy to sleep. he softly hummed, still running his hand on his back. jongho turned to jelly in his arms. he felt safe and protected. he could feel himself drifting off to sleep with his hyung singing to him. he slept without a hitch the rest of the night.

after seeing the young boy fall asleep, yeosang moved both of them onto the bed and covered them with jongho’s blanket. he could just sleep here tonight. in his sleep, the young boy wrapped his arms around the bigger body. yeosang smiled as he himself feel asleep next to the boy.


	8. b

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & hongjoong

hongjoong always had this father like role within the group. seonghwa and him had both taken the respective roles as mom & dad. while seonghwa usually only brought out his motherly half to the younger kids, hongjoong was definitely a father to everyone, including himself. this was especially true for the youngest, jongho who had been titled as the baby of the group for a reason. often times if the youngest had a hard time sleeping he would go to hongjoong. he usually had the young boy curled up to himself while he would sing a song for him or play with his hair until he fell asleep.

hongjoong recalls one time where he was up late working and the boy had crawled into his lap. he rocked him to sleep like a baby that night and would not stop gushing about how cute it was the next day to seonghwa. he was always making sure the boy was washed up and not making a mess. one time while out in public at a restaurant, hongjoong got a compliment from an older couple about how cute and well behaved his child was. 

he didn’t bother telling them that jongho wasn’t technically his child because he basically thought of him as his own also. he isn’t sure when exactly he started referring to him as “son”. the younger never questioned it, always responding and that was that. it had just become such a normal thing for everyone.


	9. a

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & san (again)

san was having a pretty bad day. he was struggling in vocal rehearsals and kept messing up during their dance practice. usually if someone was in a bad mood everyone would let them be and not bother them. but as ateez got in the car and headed back to their dorm, jongho just wanted to cheer his hyung up. 

he didn’t like seeing him sad, so he shifted over in his seat and gave san a hug.  
san was startled and ready to throw out a complaint when he saw who had hugged him. his eyes softened and he let out a soft sigh. san always saw jongho as a precious ray of sunshine and despite not being that far apart in age difference, he saw him as a much younger little brother. everyone did really, if their adorable maknae was happy then the days would always seem to be so much better.  
san wrapped his arms around the smaller and started running his hand through his hair. he couldn’t remember why he was in a bad mood anymore, he instead decided to focus on the precious boy who was hugging him.

they stayed like that for the rest of the car ride and by the time they had arrived back to their dorms san found jongho dead asleep. he smiled and made his way out of the car holding the small sleeping boy. mingi, who was riding with them, had grabbed both of their bags and they all headed up to their dorm.

once they entered the dorm san had noticed everyone else was already getting ready for bed. he made his way to his room and carefully placed jongho down on his bed, and he soon followed. san didn’t care that he was still in his dance clothes and hadn’t showered or washed up. missing one shower wouldn’t kill him.  
once san had covered both himself and jongho with his big blanket, he felt the younger shift around and hug his body in his sleep. san smiled and felt at peace.

he still had a small lingering thought in his head about his day, but honestly he couldn’t find it in himself to care anymore. he was amazed at how much a person could totally flip his mood with just a simple gesture.

with that thought san fell asleep, a wide smile plastered on his face.


	10. b

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & seongjoong

ateez had a saturday off and most of them had gone out to shop or hang out with friends.  
jongho decided to stay home and catch up on sleep as he had been staying up later the past few days to finish school work.  
hoongjoong slept in and wanted to get some more work done so he stayed home as well.  
seonghwa went out a little, but eventually came back home as he didn’t have too much he wanted to do that day.  
currently seonghwa was watching tv, and hongjoong was on his laptop with one earbud in. the two had occasional conversations but besides that the room was calm.  
jongho woke up cold and alone. he sat up and looked around for his favorite stuffed bear. when he found it he quickly grabbed it and held it close to his body. he slowly got off his bed which scared him slightly as he was on the top of a bunk bed. he was definitely feeling smaller than usual and the ladder was a scary thing for him to get down by himself.  
eventually he found his way out of his room and he wondered around the hallways looking for someone, anyone. he was on the verge of tears, did everyone leave him?  
when he heard the tv playing he walked quickly to the direction where he heard it coming from.

seonghwa has just started watching another episode of a drama that was on when jongho came in the room.  
seonghwa looked up and felt his heart soften at the sight of his maknae. in a pair of sweats and a way too big shirt, sported with messy bed head and clutching his bear stuffed animal. it was a cute sight for sure.

seonghwa noticed the watery eyes and automatically opened up his arms calling for the boy. he could tell the boy was feeling small right now by the way he was walking.  
jongho scrambled over and jumped into seonghwa’s arms immediately becoming happier.  
hongjoong looked up from his laptop when he heard seoghwa calling for jongho. he let out a soft coo and quickly stood up to sit next to seonghwa who now held jongho in his arms in a protective manner.

hongjoong started rubbing small circles in jongho’s backs and smiled when the younger looked up at him.  
“hi baby how are you?,” hongjoong asked, trying hard to not let out any sounds of adoration that might scare jongho.

“good..but m’tired,” jongho replied back while laying his head down on seonghwa’s shoulder.  
“go to sleep baby, we will be right here when you wake up, maybe even your other hyung’s will be back to play with you,” seonghwa spoke softly to jongho while running a hand through his hair. jongho sighed in content and out of instinct brought his thumb up to his mouth to suck on it.

hongjoong caught it before the younger could do anything and reminded him to not use his thumb.  
“you want your paci baby?,” hongjoong asked and stood up when he saw the small nod coming from jongho.  
seonghwa had started singing softly to jongho when hongjoong left to get a pacifier.  
jongho felt so comfortable and safe and so tired at the same time, but he still couldn’t sleep just yet.

when hongjoong came back he quickly walked over and popped the yellow smiley face paci in jongho’s mouth.  
Jongho almost immediately fell into a deep sleep and both hongjoong and seonghwa simultaneously let out a soft chorus of coos and sounds of delight.  
seonghwa gave hongjoong his phone and directed him to take a couple of pictures. hongjoong nodded, grabbing his own phone as well. 

he took multiple pictures and ended up sending a few to the jongho appreciation group chat they all had. every member actually had one, if people needed to talk about someone or send something without them seeing it, they used them. they were called appreciation chats because that’s what they were usually used for. nothing but praises for that person would be tossed around and in the case of jongho, multiple pictures of outfits he would be cute in or just cute pictures of him in general were sent.

yeosang and wooyoung sent a spam of heart emojis and the others followed in a similar manner, stating when they would be back.

maybe twenty minutes later jongho was still napping on seonghwa and the older two were still gushing over him.  
“he’s just too adorable joong, seriously how lucky are we that he’s our baby maknae,” seonghwa commented.  
“the luckiest,” hongjoong responded while smiling down at the sleeping boy on seonghwa’s chest.


	11. y

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & babysitter mingi

mingi isn’t sure why he agreed to babysit for his friends. he has never really liked kids, and really didn’t have a clue on what to do when it came to them. maybe it’s because he felt bad, but he ended up agreeing on watching over san and wooyoung’s newborn so they could go out for a date.  
they were supposed to be arriving soon, and mingi was nervous. he didn’t really think about the situation he had been put into. he was being trusted with an actual human. a small human was going to be placed under his care and absolutely nothing could happen to him. mingi was definitely nervous and for a second thought of calling up his friends to tell them that he simply couldn't do it when he heard a knock come from his front door.  
slowly he walked to the door and peeked through the small little peep hole his door had.  
yup it was definitely them. mingi opened the door and was met with two smiling faces.  
“mingi hi! thank you so much for watching him for us,” wooyoung spoke up. mingi slowly nodded trying to put up a somewhat relaxed aura for his two friends. san was holding a baby carrier with what mingi could only assume was jongho. “here,” san spoke handing the carrier over to mingi who made sure to wipe his hands on his shorts quickly to get rid of any sweat before grabbing it.  
the couple laughed at his action and then continued to hand mingi a bag that they told him had everything he would need. “he is sleeping right now, but when he wakes up he will probably be hungry so just make hima bottle, we left instructions on everything in the bag thank you so much byeee!,” wooyoung rushed out quickly as san had seemed to eagerly pull him away from the door. they had been looking forward to going out on a date for a while so they couldn’t really contain their excitement.  
mingi let out a long sigh and closed the door. he walked into his living room placing the bag and carrier down on the couch. he slowly sat next to the carrier, afraid he might wake up the baby. there was a blanket covering the top and mingi was suddenly nervous to even take that off. he had only really seen jongho a few times, and it had been a while since the last time.  
what if there wasn’t even a baby? maybe they were pranking him.  
mingi almost slapped himself for thinking those things. why would they prank him? mingi, after a minute finally took off the blanket and let out a sigh of relief when he saw the peaceful, sleeping baby. he had forgotten how cute jongho was and let himself coo over the infant for a few seconds. he was wearing a bear onesie and had a matching pacifier with it.   
mingi , too nervous to pick jongho up decided to keep him in the carrier for as long as he could to avoid anything happening.

it was about thirty minutes after jongho had arrived when he woke up.  
mingi was in the kitchen making himself some popcorn when he heard the crying. he almost dropped the bowl of popcorn he had in panic. he set the bowl down and quickly ran to his living room. he bent down in front of the carrier to pick up the crying baby. he didn't give himself time to freak out over the possibility of him holding jongho incorrectly. as soon as he had jongho in his arms as secure as he could get him, mingi rummaged through the bag he had been given for instructions on how to make a bottle. he quickly found the paper and grabbed the things he needed before heading to his kitchen.

mingi found it quite difficult to make a bottle and hold a crying baby at the same time but he managed to make it work. as soon as he had tested the temperature of the bottle like the paper said to, he brought the bottle towards jongho and sighed in relief when the crying had stopped and jongho had accepted the drink. he slowly made his way to the living room and sat down on his couch. he adjusted jongho to where he could fully support his head and hold the rest of his body as well.

mingi had read over the paper double checking that he had done everything correctly and reading what he should do after he finishes his bottle. the atmosphere was calm and mingi didn’t feel as nervous as he had before. he looked down and couldn’t help but smile. he might hate kids, well most of them, but he would be lying if he said they weren't cute. the baby in his arms was definitely no exception. he understood why his boyfriend yeosang would always gush about jongho now.

once jongho finished his bottle mingi made sure to follow the instructions and burp him. it seemed like mingi had been burping the baby forever, because around thirty minutes later he was still patting the baby’s back. when really, mingi just hadn’t heard the baby burp, so he had just been patting jongho for a while. but he didn’t know that. when mingi had tried pulling jongho away from his chest to check on him he felt a small tug on his shirt, it was then that he realised jongho had fallen asleep and was holding onto his shirt with his hand in a small fist.  
mingi smiled and decided to lay down on the couch, making sure jongho’s tiny hands weren't getting crushed. he doesn't know when he exactly fell asleep, but mingi does remember wrapping his arms protectively over the baby before he fell asleep.

wooyoung and san had been knocking on mingi’s door for a good five minutes. they tried calling and texting him but there was no response. they had resorted to calling yeosang to ask him if there was a spare key to the apartment. yeosang had told them that he had actually been on his way over and that he could let them inside.  
it was maybe another three minutes before yeosang had arrived, and the two parents waited anxiously for the door to open. the three of them then stepped inside and into the living room. a collective aww could be heard as well as the snapping of a camera. mingi was fast asleep on the couch with jongho wide awake right in top of him. jongho was slapping his hand against mingi’s face which seemed to have no affect on him.

wooyoung and san let out a few laughs before they walked towards their son and picked him up. “hi baby were you playing with your sleepy uncle? hmm,” wooyoung cooed to his son while san picked up their belongings. the two of them had asked yeosang to tell mingi how thankful they were when he woke up, and then they made their way out of the apartment.  
that was the first of many different times where mingi would babysit.


	12. !!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho & yunyeo

yunho and yeosang didn’t plan on having a child together, it hadn’t ever been something either of them seemed interested in. even when some of their closest friends had taken to adoption, the idea had never stuck.

yunho and yeosang had babysat multiple times. seonghwa and hongjoong would both get super busy with work during summer so they often found their son wooyoung hanging around with them during the weekdays. they hadn’t realized how much they really enjoyed looking after a child then.

wooyoung was a sweetheart, while he was only six years old, he always listened to yunho and yeosang and never made any kind of fuss. he rarely got in trouble and was such an ideal child. yeosang and yunho would often have a talk about how great parents hongjoong and seonghwa were, and how wooyoung would grow to be an amazing person.  
one day, yunho had started getting strange dreams. that day he had been babysitting wooyoung again, and like usual everything was smooth sailing. except he couldn’t help but have a feeling of want as he watched hongjoong and seonghwa come to pick wooyoung up. the way the small boy ran towards his parents with the brightest smile, and with the look of pure love that was so obviously radiating off of the two parents. yunho felt something in his heart watching the three of them, but he decided to just shake it off.

yunho knew he was dreaming when he could see yeosang and himself sitting in a room with all of their friends, wooyoung playing on the ground, laughing and smiling, and the adults talking on the couch. but something was different, yunho was holding a baby in his arms, and yeosang was holding up toys in front of the baby. yunho didn’t recognize the baby, but what he could recognize was the feeling of love and happiness.the same thing he had felt earlier in the day watching wooyoung reunite with his own parents. things just felt perfect and so correct and when yunho woke up and remembered that yeosang and him had both agreed on not having kids, he couldn’t help but feel a little sad.  
he decided that he wouldn’t think too much of his dream that day, he assumed it was just a phase and that he would get over it.

so everything was normal again for about a week, until it happened again. it was a similar dream, except this time yunho only saw yeosang and himself sitting in the living room of their apartment, with the same baby as before. yeosang was cradling the infant and feeding it a bottle as yunho sat next to him smiling with that pure love look in his eyes.  
it was after that dream that yunho knew he had actually wanted a child. he couldn’t stop thinking about having a baby with his husband, it was a foreign thing as he never used to care too much for kids. maybe it was all the babysitting he did, or maybe he just had a change of heart. yunho didn’t know, but he did know that he craved for a baby now.  
when yunho thought about his experience with kids and all of his dreams, he couldn’t deny it. but he wasn’t sure where yeosang stood with this. after all, they had both agreed when they had gotten married on not having kids, and although that was in the past, yunho didn’t know how yeosang still felt.

yunho made a decision to talk to yeosang about this, as they were married and he didn’t feel like hiding this kind of thing from his husband.after all, just dreaming about a baby wouldn’t get him anywhere. yunho had decided it would be okay if yeosang didn’t want a child, he would most likely be really sad about it, but he at least wanted to talk about it and give it a chance.

yunho was so nervous to even tell his husband that he wanted to talk to him about something. turns out, he was freaking out for no reason. yeosang himself had come to yunho, telling him that they needed to have a serious talk soon, and while yunho should of been nervous about what his husband was going to say, he felt relieved that he could also just bring up his own thoughts at the same time.  
two days later, when both yeosang and yunho had the day off from work, they sat down together and talked. it had turned out that yunho wasn’t the only one getting strange dreams. while yeosang didn’t exactly see the both of them sitting down somewhere with a baby and doing things, he rather would just see small flashes of a baby. yeosang said that he ignored it at first, until he started seeing flashes of himself with yunho and the same baby, smiling together. he also felt the need to mention that he saw a cat in one of the flashes, implying that he wanted a pet.  
yeosang told his husband that he found himself loving those small flashes during his dreams so much, that eventually he found himself looking forward to going to bed so he could see his happy dream family. for whatever reason it didn’t even occur to him to talk about this with yunho, until one particular time he had a dream where he had come home from work to find his husband with a sleeping baby on his shoulder while he was cooking dinner and singing along to songs. yeosang told yunho that it had felt so domestic and perfect and that he just had to tell yunho about this.  
the two of them looked at each other with the biggest smiles during the whole time that had sat down to talk, that had been one of the happiest nights of their marriage.

they had started the process of adoption about a week later when they both had enough time to sit down and do research. they had reached out to their friends who had adopted and asked for advice. to say they were all excited and shocked about the news of the couple adopting would be an understatement.  
hongjoong and seonghwa had sent them the information of the company they had used to adopt wooyoung and told them that they would be there to help with anything they needed. some other friends of theirs had also reached out with supportive words.it was a long wait, hundreds of paperwork, interviews, and a lot more. it all seemed overwhelming, but having friends by their side the whole time made things a lot easier.  
it was about six months later when yunho and yeosang had been told that they were deemed fit for a child and that the company would start looking for a suitable child. yunho cried that night, happy tears of course, because none of it felt real to him. he couldn’t believe that he was this close to being able to bring home a child that he would be raising with the love of his life. yeosang wasn’t emotionally any better, and once the two of them had calmed down they had both laughed about what they would be like when they actually had their child with them.

it happened sooner than they expected actually, it was about two months later when they had received a call that informed them of a month old baby who had been abandoned in a box on the street. they couldn’t find any information on the birth parents,or relatives, just a paper in the box stating a birthday and name. from there, the baby had been put into the system. there would be a few meetings before they could actually bring him home, but it would happen quickly.

the first time yeosang and yunho saw jongho, they didn’t cry. they wanted to, but a social worker was in the room with them and they didn’t want to embarrass themselves. but as soon as she left to give them some alone time, they had burst into tears. the tiny human wrapped in a light brown bear blanket who was sleeping so peacefully, was their own son.  
they couldn’t decide on who got to hold him first, so they decided to just look at him from the cot that he was already laying in. the couple were holding hands as yunho laid his head on yeosang’s shoulder while using his other hand to softly caress jongho’s small hands. and when the same tiny hand had gripped onto one of his fingers, yunho thought his heart was going to explode. he wanted to take jongho home immediately, but he knew they still had to meet with a social worker a few more times before that could actually happen.

the next time the couple had gone to see jongho with a social worker, he was awake. the big sparkly eyes that peered up at yeosang and yunho gave the two of them happy butterflies. they were actually able to play with jongho during that visit, and although he remained mostly silent for most of visit, it was still a memorable moment for the couple.

yeosang had been called during work by the social worker they had been working with. he was told that the next time they were scheduled to meet up with a worker and to see jongho, that they would be allowed to take him home. once yeosang had ended the call, he jumped out of his chair and practically ran to his car. he didn’t care that he had just run out in the middle of his work shift, he just knew that he needed to get back home to yunho.

as soon as yunho had heard that they would be bringing jongho home very soon, he demanded that they go shopping. although the couple had already set up a nursery in the extra bedroom they had, yunho had carried on about jongho not having enough things.  
yeosang, too excited about the news, just agreed with him and they both headed out to the store. on the way there, yunho called seonghwa to tell him about the news, there was a lot of screaming and then afterwords seonghwa was requesting a time to come over for at least a solid day once they finally had jongho. that call soon ended and then the couple’s other friends san and mingi were being called to be told the same thing.  
yeosang couldn’t help but smile at how happy all of their friends sounded, it was becoming so so real. yeosang had known for a while that things were going to happen, but now knowing that the next meeting they had was in about two days and he would be taking his son home that day. he just couldn’t exactly grasp it still.

the couple had bought as many bear related baby items they could find in the store that day. ever since they had first met jongho, they had picked up on the many bear related items he had.and at every meeting from that point on,they would make it a point to create as many different nicknames for him in relation to bears that they could think of.  
the whole time they were out shopping the couple had literally been bouncing with excitement. they both knew there would be a lot of tough things that would come with taking care of a baby, but they were determined to get through it all together.

_______________________

yeosang woke up to loud wails coming from the nursery. he groaned and tried to block out the sounds by burrowing his head further into his pillow, until he felt a light slap on his back and heard yunho sleepily telling him that it was his turn to get up and check on jongho.  
yeosang wanted to sigh, but instead found himself smiling. he loved seeing his son, even if he was crying his little heart out or not, yeosang couldn’t shake the feeling of love he felt every time he was around jongho.

it had only been a month since yunho and yeosang had brought baby jongho home, but it felt like years, but good years in a way. things hadn’t felt like they were going too fast, and everything had finally seemed to be going perfectly in yeosang’s life. he had been given a promotion and a raise from his boss about a week after jongho had finally come home with him.

yunho had been happier than ever, he was constantly sending yeosang cute pictures and messages while he was at work of their son and what he had been up to during that day. the couple themselves had grown even closer and haven’t found themselves in any kind of rough patch so far. anytime there was a disagreement that would start to get a little out of hand, one of the two would calm down and talk things out with the other.  
the communication between yunho and yeosang had become stronger with the addition of jongho in their life. there was a new level of trust and love that hadn’t been there before, and it was beautiful.

jongho had been everything and more that the couple could of asked for. from the moment he had been brought home, he had been practically an angel. he rarely cried, unless it was at night time which was normal for babies. he always had a sort of baby smile on his face that they both knew was probably just some default thing that babies did , but still, they both loved it nonetheless.  
when they had first brought him home, they had been quick to post hundreds of pictures on social media bragging about how they had the cutest baby.  
and it didn’t take long once they had posted pictures online for the couples group of friends to come rushing over.

hongjoong and seonghwa had immediately taken to jongho, fussing and making coos over him. wooyoung, who had been stranded by his parents at the door, just skipped over and started making his own faces at the baby that was now in seonghwa’s arms.  
mingi had messaged yunho and gave him a small warning about san, he apparently had shown him a picture of jongho and he had been absolutely entranced by him, and would not stop staring at the phone screen for a solid five minutes. 

they were coming over to visit, and it didn’t take long for them to show up. as soon as the two of them had walked through the front doors, san was pushing through everybody so he could sit on the couch, right next to seonghwa and put his hands out , practically demanding to hold jongho.  
“san, try asking and maybe you can hold him,” mingi spoke to him from where he had been standing with yeosang. yunho and yeosang had actually found it quite amusing that san seemed to love jongho so much, they could tell he was going to be a great uncle to him.

everyone ended up staying over for about four hours, staying for dinner and just chatting as well. when yunho had stood up to put jongho to bed, wooyoung had started yelling that he wasn’t allowed to take him away, and then proceeded to break out into hysterical sobs. seonghwa and hongjoong had managed to get wooyoung into a different room and started telling him that he would see jongho again but it was his bed time, and a bunch of other stuff. they could tell already that this meltdown would not just be a one time thing.

thankfully jongho was a fantastic sleeper(“he gets it from me” yeosang would say), and he didn’t wake up when wooyoung had started yelling and sobbing.  
for the little bit after the whole fiasco with wooyoung, yunho had offered the child the baby monitor that they had installed. it was a fancy one that had a camera and screen, and just like that-wooyoung was glued to the the plastic device for the rest of the time that they stayed over.

seonghwa and hongjoong were more than glad that wooyoung had fallen asleep just before they left, they didn’t want a repeat of earlier to happen again. They left with wooyoung asleep in hongjoong’s arms, and a promise of coming to visit soon.

as the door finally closed and got locked, the couple was nothing but smiles. they had a group of loving and supportive friends who have gone through the same situation as them, and a bunch of love from both of their families. not to mention the cutest baby on earth and a bright and long future together. they couldn’t ask for anything else.


	13. on stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho in little space on stage!!

jongho was stressed. yesterday during rehearsal, he just hadn’t been on his agame, there was a concert happening today, and jongho not being perfect the day before just freaked him out.   
the entire day leading up to when they were leaving for the venue, jongho had been hiding how nervous he was towards his hyungs. they all had their own individual worries, and he didn’t want to put any of his on them. 

at the concert venue, jongho had managed to calm down a bit. hearing cheers from all of the fans helped him take his mind off from his stress. he was able to start the concert and luckily he found himself not messing up or getting nervous. his stress from earlier in the day seemingly vanished. jongho was happy and now more relaxed on the stage.   
about halfway through the concert, ateez took a break to talk with the fans. jongho was the second to last to talk, so he took his time to examine all of the posters and things the fans had brought with them. he laughed at a few of the funny ones with his hyungs face on them. jongho kept a small smile on his face as he continued to look at the posters, zoning out of whatever was being said by his hyungs. 

jongho thought he was pretty stable, everything was going so well, and then he saw a poster with his own face on it. there was a picture of him with a teddy bear he received at a fan sign, a pacifier had clearly been edited onto his mouth, and in bold words right above the picture was “baby jongho”.

it took barley a few seconds for jongho to slip into his headspace and for all of his thoughts to be clouded. jongho now had a big goofy smile on his face, and he finally turned his head to look at his hyungs who were standing next to him, still speaking to the fans. jongho immediately tapped on san’s shoulder, who was next to him, hoping to get his attention. san turned to jongho and knew something was up when he saw jongho’s big smile. “sannie wanna play?,” jongho asked quietly hoping his hyung would play with him. san’s eyes widened automatically and he leaned down to jongho to ask if he was little right now. jongho giggled and nodded his head, unaware of the attention he had from some fans. san quickly told jongho that he had to be a good boy and that he couldn’t play right now, jongho looked disheartened, but san made sure to promise him lots of candy if he was good. jongho eagerly nodded his head and turned back to face the crowd. 

when jongho’s turn came to talk with the fans, he spoke quieter than usual, as he always did while in little space, it didn’t take long for the rest of his hyungs to figure out what had happened, so they all assured the fans that his mic volume was just low, and when jongho stumbled over his words, it was played off as a technical issue.   
right after jongho finished talking with the fans, he got bored. He knew he was supposed to be a good boy but he was so bored. mingi was the last one to talk and he was taking forever. jongho started playing with his fingers waiting for something to happen when he felt something hit his leg. jongho looked down and brightened up upon seeing a stuffed animal a fan must have thrown on stage. jongho giggled and picked up the toy and turned to show his hyungs his new toy with a loud,”look hyungie”. the members all tensed up for a second but when atiny started cooing and calling jongho cute, they relaxed a bit. “it looks cute baby,” hongjoong told him, whispering the last part. jongho, happy that his hyungs liked his new toy, went back to focusing on his new toy now.   
mingi finished speaking to the fans soon, and jongho felt someone rip out his new toy from his hands. jongho was about to complain but yunho had come up to him before he could and reminded him that he had to be a good boy. jongho stopped any whine that he would of usually expressed, not wanting to get in trouble. the concert continued like normal after that. 

jongho really did not want to sing and dance, but his hyungs kept telling him that he was being such a good boy, and if he was making his hyungs happy, then he would continue to sing and dance.  
eventually, the last ending speech came and everyone took turns to talk once again and say their final thoughts. jongho at this point was itching to just play with one of his hyungs, he had been a good boy the entire time and he just wanted his new toy back. jongho’s turn for speaking went surprisingly well, he remembered to thank all of the fans and mention that he loved them all. sure , there were a few giggles thrown in when it took him a second to think about how he needs to say something, but the fans didn’t question anything. 

after what felt like ages, the concert was over, and despite jongho just wanting to play earlier, he was tired now. ss soon as they got backstage and out of sight from the fans, jongho was pulled into his yeosang hyung’s arms. jongho laughed a little and laid his head on his hyung’s shoulder. “hi baby, you were so good out there weren’t you?,” yeosang asked as he hugged jongho. jongho smiled a little and shook his head. he was on his bestest behaviour! jongho whined quietly when someone pulled him away from his warm hug but he smiled when he saw it was seonghwa and he immediately leaped onto his hyung. jongho was always extra clingy when he was tired, so it didn’t take long for the other members to notice that jongho looked ready for bed. 

usually everyone took their time to pack up after concerts, but things went by a bit quicker today, hongjoong had to make sure jongho ate before he passed out, because once he was asleep, he was asleep, and he did not want jongho to fall asleep on an empty stomach, that never ends up well.in the car on the way back, they had to play loud music so jongho couldn’t go to sleep, he wasn’t happy about it, but they had to keep him awake. it seemed like the longest car ride back to the dorm, and despite the loud music, jongho was still nodding off every once in a while. when they finally reached the dorms, wooyoung quickly went inside and started cooking up a quick ramen meal. jongho was distracted by a game on mingi’s phone that luckily kept him awake until the ramen was ready. when the food was done, hongjoong sat next to jongho and fed him, seeing as he was not awake enough to even try to use utensils. hongjoong got about ¾ done with the food in jongho’s bowl when jongho finally rested his head on the table and fell asleep on the spot. a chorus of coos were heard, as well as some camera clicks before san stood up and volunteered to put jongho in bed as he was already done eating himself. jongho, despite being strong and looking muscular, did not weigh a lot, and everybody was able to hold and pick him up, some for not as long, yes, but nonetheless, it wasn’t a struggle for short trips. san decided on putting jongho in his own room, as he was most likely going to wake up in his headspace the next day, and jongho hated waking up alone. san quickly changed jongho’s clothes and put him in some sleep clothes before he himself got ready for bed. 

and of course when jongho woke up the next day in headspace like predicted, he made sure to remind all of his hyungs about the candy he was promised from the day before.


	14. jongho's thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just jongho's thoughts

recently jongho had been feeling down. jongho loved to read comments online from all of the fans, but he couldn’t help but notice that he never felt that happy reading comments about himself. the fans seemingly only ever talked about his unusual strength he had, always talking about how he must break things or easily be able to beat somebody up. jongho knew he was strong, but he never truly liked being known as the “apple breaker” or “strongest member”. he wanted comments that praised his looks, like how his hyungs would get nice comments that always called them cute, or babies. 

baby. jongho loved that nickname, and naturally he was called it a lot by his hyungs, but when the fans only ever used it for his other members, jongho felt like maybe he shouldn’t be the maknae. it was a constant self battle he went through, that he wasn’t cute enough or small enough to actually be the youngest or baby of the group. at times jongho would just burst into tears, he hated being seen as a muscle guy, all he wanted was for the fans to say something, anything else. but maybe he was asking too much. 

his hyungs knew about jongho’s inner dilemma since it first came up, jongho could not keep anything hidden, and he ended up telling them everything that he had been feeling. his hyung’s were quick to assure him that he was more than deserving to be in the group, and afterwards they drowned him with soft praises and extensive use of the nicknames baby, and sweetheart. 

jongho might get sad sometimes, but having his hyung’s with him to reassure him, he found himself more happy than sad these days.


	15. sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho is sick

jongho was sick. he had been restless all night, getting maybe two hours of sleep, and he had thrown up at least three times. he was always told to tell someone, no matter what time it was, if he wasn’t feeling well. but jongho didn’t do that, of course he didn’t, his hyungs were asleep and he didn’t want to bother them. he figured it would go away during the night anyways.

the sickness did not go away, and unfortunately for jongho, seonghwa was a master at detecting if someone was sick. so as soon as seonghwa entered the youngests room, he noticed how flushed jongho looked, and the obvious signs of sickness jumped out at him. seonghwa rushed over to jongho, who was curled in on himself, and checked his forehead to feel for a temperature. he retracted his hand when he felt the burning heat, and immediately let out a soft sigh. “baby are you not feeling well today?,” seonghwa asked in a softer voice than normal. jongho nodded his head yes, not willing to try and lie to seonghwa when he could already see that he wasn’t feeling good. 

seonghwa leaned down to kiss jongho’s forehead and give him a small hug. seonghwa couldn’t help but frown slightly when he saw jongho’s scrunched up face that was showing clear discomfort. “i’m gonna go get you some medicine and water baby, do you want anyone to come in here with you?,” seonghwa asked as he stood up to leave the room. jongho stayed silent for a couple seconds before saying that he didn’t care who came in, but yes he wanted someone with him. “i’m sure everybody will want to come in baby, do you want to move to a bigger bed?,” seonghwa asked, already planning for what would happen when everybody heard jongho was sick. 

jongho once again nodded his head yes, and with that seonghwa left the room to notify the rest of the group, who had all woken up already.   
as soon as the words “sick” and “jongho” were heard mingi had set off to carry jongho into hongjoong and seonghwa’s room, as they had the biggest bed, and the others started gathering pillows and blankets to stockpile. seonghwa found the medicine and grabbed a water bottle quickly before he headed towards his own room. when he got to his room, jongho had been placed in the center of the bed, yeosang and san on either side of him. jongho’s head was resting on san’s chest and yeosang was sitting next to jongho, playing lightly with his hair. everyone else was spread out over the rest of the bed. seonghwa usually would have scolded everyone for getting so close to a sick person, but he decided to let it go as they all had pretty good immune systems and rarely got sick. 

the remainder of the day went by pretty fast, once jongho had taken his medicine he fell asleep soon after, napping for a good five hours. the rest of the group just relaxed and watched some movies on a quiet volume so they wouldn’t disturb jongho. around lunch time yunho and hongjoong left to go make some food, and jongho had woken up, not feeling much better than before.   
jongho hadn’t had anything to eat for breakfast, so it concerned everybody when he wasn’t able to stomach any kind of food for lunch. jongho eventually was able to keep down some plain crackers, which was good enough for the two ever so worried parents (hongjoong and seonghwa). after lunch wooyoung and mingi demanded to change spots with san and yeosang, claiming that they were hogging jongho all for themselves. they both started to whine and complain, but hongjoong was quick to shut them down and tell them to move. 

they continued to watch some movies, TV and youtube videos after that for another few hours, this time with jongho awake and sprawled across wooyoung and mingi. eventually, everyone left the bedroom to stretch and walk around a bit, even jongho, who had been offered to be carried by all of his hyungs. by this point, jongho had started to feel a bit better, but he decided to keep that information to himself, figuring out earlier that his hyungs were happy to do anything for him when he wasn’t feeling well.   
as it got later into the night, hongjoong had demanded everyone to go to bed in their own respective beds, except jongho. he had been “deprived of him” all day long, and requested that he gets him to himself all night long. jongho was unbothered by this, he was used to his hyungs constantly asking him to sleep with them for a night. jongho had managed to end up with his own room, and while it didn’t bother him, it bothered all of his hyungs. he probably spent more time sleeping in his hyungs room than his own. that night, jongho slept like a baby, wrapped up in the softest blanket in the dorm, and with his hyung’s arms around him. 

and so what if jongho woke up the next day feeling much better but playing it off as if he still didn’t feel that good? his hyungs didn’t seem to mind another day of cuddling, and neither did jongho.


	16. tummy ache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho has a tummy ache

the schedule for ateez recently had been very hectic.from interviews to tv shows, radio appearances and more. there were a lot of jam packed days that left little rest for the members. the group was in the middle of a five day long schedule with back to back filming and travel. it was only the second day, but jongho had already been feeling pretty off. the night before they had little time to eat dinner, jongho had to eat everything pretty quickly which unsettled his stomach. 

jongho thought it would go away overnight, that it was just pain from eating too quickly. 

he was wrong

ever since jongho had woken up, he felt a lot of pain from his tummy. jongho took some medicine and convinced himself that it would pass by and everything would be fine. once again, he was wrong, as the painful feeling only seemed to get gradually more intense as the time ticked by. waves of pain came in every couple of minutes, so jongho for the most part was able to avoid bringing any attention to himself.  
ateez were in the car driving towards the next location that they would be interviewed at. jongho was sitting next to the window in the middle row with hongjoong next to him. jongho had thought about telling one of his hyungs that he didn't feel good earlier on in the day, but he ended up keeping it to himself thinking things would die down. now he was regretting not mentioning anything, but he didn’t want to spring something on his hyungs when everybody was busy and more tired than usual. so jongho stayed silent and just let things happen.

that was until the pain came in one of those waves and didn’t die back down, it had been the most painful wave yet, bringing jongho to near tears. jongho found himself clutching the side of his seat in order to not wrap his arms around himself and curl into a ball. he thought he was being as quiet as possible, but again today was just not jongho’s day, and hongjoong immediately picked up on jongho’s discomfort. hongjoong leaned over and took jongho’s hand that had been squeezing the chair into his own, no questions were asked, hongjoong could tell that he wasn’t feeling good, and he did not want to stir up a ruckus with everybody else if he asked questions. 

for the remainder of the car ride hongjoong kept jongho’s hands in his own, softly caressing them every time jongho let out any sound of discomfort. by the time they had arrived at the next location, hongjoong had managed to quietly tell yeosang, who was on the other side of him, to message the manager and ask for jongho to be taken home as he was feeling unwell. the manager had agreed, and allowed for one of the other members to assist him as well. hongjoong was glad, usually nobody was allowed to be off with another member unless they weren't feeling good as well, but it had been allowed this time because the remainder of the schedules were mostly things that didn’t involve filming. 

hongjoong pulled jongho into his side when the car parked at the location, whispering to him that they would be heading back to the dorms. the rest of the members were informed about jongho going back, and felt no need to argue with hongjoong over who got to go back with him. jongho was hongjoong’s baby, he would be fidgety if he weren’t around him to help him. it was just a parental thing he had. so with a few goodbyes, and lots of forehead kisses to jongho by the rest of ateez, the two set off towards the dorm. jongho at this point was laying his head on hongjoong’s shoulder with his eyes closed. hongjoong was lightly rubbing jongho’s tummy with his hand, trying to help soothe him. 

when the two got back to the dorms, jongho had fallen asleep. now hongjoong despite being shorter and not as strong, was still very capable of carrying around most of his members. most of them. jongho was surprisingly one of the easier ones for hongjoong to pick up. he was happy to find that out, giving him an excuse to treat jongho even more like a baby. hongjoong put both his and jongho’s bags on his back, and lifted up jongho bridal style. 

just a couple minutes later they had made it into the dorm. hongjoong laid jongho down onto yunho’s bed, as it was the bed closest to the front, and then left to make a soup for jongho.   
when jongho woke up he was actually very comfortable, his tummy wasn’t hurting at the moment and he was in a warm bed. jongho would have just closed his eyes and gone back to sleep, if it wasn't for the sounds of laughter he could hear drifting into the room. everyone else must have come back already, jongho thought as he sat up in yunho’s bed. jongho kept the blanket around him, happy with the warmth he was getting from it. jongho felt another slight wave of pain as he stood up, but it wasn’t the worst he had felt all day.   
in the living room, the rest of ateez had all gathered after everyone else came back when the schedule was shortened.they were watching a movie and talking amongst each other. hongjoong had made some soup earlier, for jongho, but everyone else had helped themselves to the food before jongho even had any. luckily hongjoong planned for that, and he had made plenty for eight people. when jongho came out into the living room wrapped up in yunho’s big blanket that was dragging just a bit on the ground, everyone noticed and had beckoned for jongho to come over. 

“how does your tummy feel baby?,” yunho asked when jongho plopped down onto the couch space next to him. jongho let out a small whine in response, not wanting to talk at the moment. mingi, who was on the other side of jongho, pulled him up onto his lap and wrapped his arms around his torso so he could pat his tummy softly. 

the rest of the evening consisted of hongjoong attempting to get jongho to eat his soup, and the rest of the members cuddling with jongho and giving him lots of tummy rubs.


	17. hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the new choreographer wasn't nice

jongho was a shy boy. he was outgoing and loud around people he was comfortable with, or people he knew. however, jongho tended to be quiet and struggled to speak up around new people. nothing much had been thought of it, not until a new choreographer had been assigned to the group for the comeback they had nearing. the choreographer was in his thirties, and at first glance a nice man who just enjoyed dancing. he was critical and communicative with the group during rehearsals, but it never crossed a line. after the second group practice, everyone had been dismissed except jongho. the choreographer asked for him to stay behind so he could help him correct some moves. this was typical from previous choreographers, so nobody had thought much about it and the rest of the members bid jongho a farewell. 

as soon as the last person had left the practice room, the choreographer was demanding jongho to get into his first position in the dance. jongho wanted to ask what he should be correcting, but the facial expression on the choreographer had changed into an angry one, and with jongho being shy around new people, he decided to keep his mouth shut to avoid making the man angrier. about halfway through the dance, the choreographer had yelled out for jongho to stop and stormed over to the speaker to turn off the music. 

jongho then proceeded to get yelled at for nearly five minutes about how his footwork was “completely wrong and completely messed up”. jongho let the choreographer yell, and then he started to try and correct himself, although he wasn’t too sure on what exactly he was supposed to be doing instead, seeing as the choreographer hadn’t actually told him what he should've been doing instead.   
run after run jongho ran through the dance, he had even timidly asked the choreographer what the move was that he should have been doing, just getting yelled at did nothing. but poor jongho should have known to not ask that, because apparently he was supposed to remember it from earlier during team practice. jongho thought that was ridiculous, if he was messing it up he clearly could not remember it, but he did not have the guts to voice any of that out loud. at this point the choreographer was clearly fed up, and he had decided on finishing up for the night seeing as it had gotten late. it’s okay, jongho thought, he would just ask one of hyungs about the footwork before the next practice so he wouldn't mess up again. jongho assumed that once the choreographer had finished packing up, that he would just leave. but when the choreographer walked over to jongho after he finished packing up his bag, and roughly kicked him in the leg, jongho knew that wasn’t the case. 

jongho collapsed onto the ground, holding onto his leg where it had just been hurt. it had been kicked pretty harshly, and he had just finished recovering from another leg injury mere weeks ago. jongho squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed onto his leg where he had just been kicked, nothing broke, but it still hurt. jongho was shocked enough to receive a kick, but before jongho could do anything else, he felt water being poured over him along with some curse words from the choreographer and string of comments telling him to get better. 

wooyoung always had an issue with barging into rooms unexpectedly, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but when wooyoung walked back to the dance studio to grab his bag he forgot, he knew he had been in the right place at the right time for once. seeing his dongsaeng curled up in a ball, with the new choreographer over him and pouring water on top of him, well it made wooyoung pissed. luckily wooyoung was better at containing his anger than some of his other members, so instead of trying to beat up the choreographer, even though he wanted too, wooyoung opted for walking over and flinging the older man towards the ground. gathering jongho into his arms, wooyoung turned his head towards where the choreographer had been flung, just to see that the man had run out of the room. wooyoung scoffed and reached into his back pocket to grab his phone. he quickly sent a message to the groupchat with his members and the managers telling them to come to the studio quickly. 

wooyoung then placed his phone down, on a dry patch of floor, and brought jongho into a tighter hug. the poor boy was crying at this point, he was drenched in cold water, and his recently healed leg had been harshly kicked. he was just glad to have his hyung here. the rest of the members, and a few managers showed up in less than ten minutes, very panicked and worried by the urgent message wooyoung had sent. jongho had explained what the dance choreographer had done to him to wooyoung, and how he had just yelled at him the entire time they were supposed to be correcting stuff. wooyoung left jongho to the other members and dragged hongjoong to the managers who had also rushed over extremely panicked. Wooyoung explained to them all what had happened, and the managers left quickly to track down the choreographer and talk to the higher ups. 

later on, after a quick check over by the company nurse, jongho was able to go home with the rest of his members. his leg was fine, there was just a bruise showing, but nothing concerning had happened. despite jongho being fine, everyone took this as a good reason to baby jongho, as if they didn’t already, and carry him around everywhere. jongho was fed his favourite food for dinner, and he got to watch his favorite movie as well, with all of his hyungs right next to him.


	18. fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jongho has a fever and sneaks out to practice

jongho was once again sick. he had a pretty bad immune system, so if he forgot to take some of his medicine that helped fight off impending sickness, then he was screwed. that was exactly the case today, jongho had been forgetting to take his medicine after long practices, which led to the fever he was currently dealing with. his hyungs all knew that he was sick, forcing him to stay in bed and not attend any practices. jongho was not happy with this, he knew he needed to get better, but he tended to get sick frequently and he hated to miss another practice. 

this is what led to jongho sneaking out early in the morning to the company building so he could practice some dance and vocals like he knew everybody else had. from about one in the morning all the way until three am, jongho danced and sang, wanting to make sure he was putting work into the team. unfortunately for jongho, dancing and singing while running a fever was not a smart move. and to add on, jongho had been very forgetful about drinking water between everything. so when jongho inevitably ended up passing out just after three am, it was a given. 

by the time jongho had woken up, he had all the way back in his bed at the dorms. he figured one of his hyungs probably woke up and couldn’t find him so they started a search party. 

jongho was correct, once he had walked out of his room, he had been bombarded by questions from his hyungs who were all gathered in the living room. seeing the worry from all of his hyungs, jongho felt bad about going against their word and practicing. jongho started tearing up a bit, unable to answer any questions as he still felt feverish, and he was upset at himself as well. almost immediately, san, who was the closest to jongho, reached out towards him and engulfed jongho into his arms. 

jongho apologized for going out, and his hyungs were quick to soothe him and calm him down. after jongho had calmed down, a movie was started and some food and medicine had been brought out for jongho. after that day, jongho decided he would always listen to his hyungs words if he got sick again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not that happy with this one, i felt unmotivated, but wanted to get it our for the person that asked for it.


	19. minsan + baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> basically just a 9k story of mingi + san and then later on baby jongho. jongho also as a different birthday in this, but its for the story so don't mind that.

Growing up, Mingi was usually known as the grandpa of his friend group. Not because he was the oldest, but simply because he was never tangled in with current trends or fads. He had his own preferences and never really seemed to be in the same time frame as everyone else.

When light up shoes had become all the rave, he was the only one in his friend group to not show up to school with them, or even own a pair. It would take Mingi a year to finally ask his mom for a pair and by then nobody wore them anymore.

There was a time when a brand had started a collectible superhero card set that was very popular among young boys. Within all of Mingi’s friends, they had mini competitions on who would end up collecting them all first. Mingi never paid attention to the small fights they had about if they were lying or not. Six months later, everyone had moved on and completed the set, but Mingi had the urge to start collecting them all himself. He had been all excited to tell his friends at school, but they had just laughed and told him that they all finished their sets a while ago.

In middle school technology had been introduced to the friend group. Yunho got a phone at the beginning of sixth grade, and that set off a trend within the group. It seemed that somebody was showing up with a phone everyday. Seonghwa would constantly try to convince Mingi to ask for a phone by showing him everything he could do on it. Mingi did find it interesting, but really never felt like asking his mom for one. It wouldn’t be until halfway through seventh grade when Mingi finally got a phone. It was the hottest new phone around, and all of his friends still had older versions, so Mingi made sure to brag to them about how they should have waited like him.

When highschool came about, relationships, sexual preferences and drama came with it. During the first few years everyone of his friends seemed to be going through a similar crisis. Mingi remembers one time while eating lunch that Yunho had shouted out that he had been thinking about kissing boys recently. To his shock, pretty much everyone else agreed with him, and while he didn’t know about them all meeting up after school to try kissing until later on, he was happy for them.

Flashforward a few years and the friend group was finally in college. Mingi had been convinced to go to a party and ‘let loose’. He wasn’t sure why, but he agreed. He woke up the next morning with a naked guy clinging onto his own naked body. That whole day Mingi was lost in thought and thinking about certain things. And a few months later, when he was positively sure, he let all of his friends know that he was also Gay.

Once college had come to a close, things had started to settle down. Mingi was still close to all of his friends, but they had already started their own lives. During college, most of his friends managed to find a boyfriend. Which was fine, but it definitely for once made Mingi feel like he should get one as well. After college, they were very quick to get engaged, and then marry. Mingi understood why, they all had planned out futures that they liked to follow, Mingi, did not.

Mingi had very impatient friends and it seemed like they were all just a tad bit too excited to start a family. Mingi would refer to this time period as an era, one by one, children and babies popped up in his friend’s lives and they had all started settling down. Mingi was still single,and not yet at an age where he felt like starting a family, but he managed to become an uncle to seven children in the span of about six years. He had often been a babysitter to multiple screaming young children when his friends felt like heading out for a date or some drinks. Mingi can remember this one time where he had unfortunately been stuck with ten kids at the same time. By the time the last of the parents had come around to pick up their kids, Mingi was in near tears from how exhausted he had been. He didn’t think he was ready for kids quite yet, he wanted to meet someone first and buckle down. Plus being a babysitter was more than enough with the bunch of devils his friends had decided to bring up.  
Mingi met San at Yeosang and Yunho’s wedding. He had already finished his food and was heading towards the dance floor to watch the first dance. Some songs about stars had been playing to go along with the theme of the wedding which was outer space. He hadn’t been paying too much attention to where he was walking and managed to spill his drink all over San white suit. A spark had been there immediately and if the two ended up making out in the bathroom a minute later despite not even knowing each other's names while they should have been cleaning San suit, well, nobody had to know about that.

San and Mingi regularly met after their impromptu make out session at the wedding. It was a lot of dates, kisses, cuddles and hugs right off the bat.They both knew after about a month that they genuinely liked each other, but nothing was official, and they had both agreed to take things slow. Mingi and San moved in together after about a year of unofficial dating. Mingi realized just how happy he was to be with San then, they practically never fought, and if they did it was over something petty like where they should go out to eat. Multiple movie nights where they would both end up asleep in each other's arms were common, but they both also enjoyed going out and enjoying life.

Mingi loves his friends, and he has always been happy for them, but he does not regret waiting to tie down his life unlike his friends who all seemed to be eager to get things going.Mingi had San, his not boyfriend but boyfriend, and he was happy with that. Mingi and San would often go out for drinks or to a dance club where Mingi would beg to see San in his zone. San always refused at first, but eventually he just gave up and would show off some moves to Mingi who would loudly cheer and excitedly tell everyone around them that he knew San. Mingi was usually drunk. Those nights always ended up with two grown men tripping over air and happily giggling as they tried to navigate through the streets back to their apartment. Whenever they would actually get back, San would beg Mingi to dance with him. And who was Mingi to refuse? The two typically just held onto each other as San attempted to do some footwork although he would never actually care enough to see if he was executing anything correctly. Mingi always held onto San and felt pure happiness, he was in love and it felt like he was a main character in a storybook.

Mingi was very smart, but it took him six years and the night of his engagement for him to figure out that neither of them had actually asked to be each other's boyfriend, it had just been implied through actions. Mingi, ever the romantic, had been casually making dinner in the kitchen while San was watching a chinese drama on the television in the living room. Mingi had just finished adding some seasoning to the meat he was cooking when he asked San if he wanted to get married. There wasn’t a response at first, but soon enough San had come strutting into the kitchen and draped himself over Mingi’s back. “The answer is yes but we haven’t even dated yet gi,” San said while resting his head on Mingi’s shoulder.

“Oh, okay, well that doesn’t matter,” Mingi replied after he thought about things for a few seconds.  
There was a pause before the newly engaged couple burst out into laughter. Mingi wasn’t bothered when San teased him about how he completely skipped step one of relationships the rest of that night. Mingi was happy, he was simply a man in love and San was his other half.

By the time Mingi had proposed to San, all of his friends had stopped with marriage and children. Seonghwa and Hongjoong had an absolute devil who would never fail to make Mingi want to rip his hair out. He was happy when he heard they would be adopting a baby boy named Wooyoung and was glad to offer help. The two were thankful but once Mingi had been tasked with watching over him, things hadn’t gone so well.

Mingi can count the amount of times he has babysat for Hongjoong and Seonghwa on one hand. Once. He went over to Seonghwa and Hongjoong’s house and walked away with near heart failure.Wooyoung had managed to drench Mingi in chocolate syrup,he walked around naked and screaming like a banshee, and had managed to get a hold of Mingi’s phone and send most of his contacts pictures of Mingi covered in chocolate . Hongjoong and Seonghwa were very apologetic, but the apologies could only do so much. So all in all, Mingi was happy for his friends and the families that they had, but they had some strange ass children. Mingi was more than happy when his friends had decided to hire actual babysitters instead of recruiting Mingi after they saw the immense struggle he went through.

About a year after his engagement Mingi and San still hadn’t gotten around to telling any friends. They had told their own parents immediately, but never had the right time to tell anyone else. So they decided they would just announce it once they sent wedding invitations.

The day invitations had arrived the couple had been ambushed with numerous text messages, calls and apartment visits. Everyone was completely gobsmacked with how sudden and out of nowhere this wedding was coming from. The couple just shrugged everyone off and told them that they should be glad they were invited.  
Seven years after meeting and the couple were finally getting married. There really wasn’t too much stress concerning the wedding, both San and Mingi had always been very laid back and casual, and just like the proposal, the wedding wouldn’t be a really big production. Family and friends had gathered for the special day and everyone was feeling giddy. Friends of the couple were ecstatic that Mingi was finally joining them in the married status where they had been for many years. Mingi and San professed each other’s love for the other and shed a few tears before the I-do’s were said. Loud cheering and whooping from Yeosang and Hongjoong along was the only sound heard as the couple walked down the aisle together after the ceremony. At the reception multiple speeches were made by family and friends and a slideshow had been put together containing multiple pictures from the couple’s many adventures. Mingi was high on happiness, and San was living in a fairytale.

Marriage had been such a high for the two of them that they had been in an extended honeymoon phase for about two years after the wedding. The couple was as happy as ever, but San couldn’t help but feel like something just wasn’t quite complete with his relationship with Mingi. The thought came to San one night when he was scrolling through facebook and he noticed that Seonghwa had posted a very extravagant post about how proud he was that his son Wooyoung had made the football team. San had a feeling then that he had all along but nothing had ever come about it until now. San knew Mingi wanted a family with him, and San felt the same, but things just felt so right and perfect in their relationship and they didn’t feel like rushing anything. But now, two years after marriage and nine years after knowing Mingi, San felt ready for children, he just needed to talk to Mingi about it.

Two days later San was watching a movie when Mingi had come in from work. Before Mingi could even announce that he was back, San ran up to him and happily shouted that he wanted a child with Mingi before he hugged him. Mingi immediately smiled and held San tighter. Mingi loved children, even if most of the ones he knew were the devils spawn, he had always known he wanted his own child when he got older.

Mingi lifted San off the floor just slightly and spun him around as he told him that he too also wanted a child.  
That night they had both agreed on having a child through surrogacy, they had absolutely no issues with adoption, but being able to raise a baby who carried at least one of their own genes was something they had a mutual agreement on.They had also seen just how hard it was to adopt a baby through their friends Hongjoong and Seonghwa, it took them ages to get approved to take home Wooyoung.

The process of finding a woman who the couple would find suitable took nearly two months. San had looked at many surrogacy companies and had narrowed those down to the most reliable and easiest to work with. Once the couple had gone in to talk to a worker about what kind of donor they were looking for they were told that they would filter through the possible donors and reach out to them again when they had things narrowed down. After that the couple had a few meetings with the different possible donors and after what felt like a year they had finally decided on a donor. She was a shorter woman who had two other successful pregnancies before. She had been kind and sweet and very excited for the couple even if they didn’t end up choosing her.  
Mingi was working when he got the call about the surrogate becoming pregnant on the first try. He immediately packed up his things and told his boss he had something important to deal with. He was allowed to leave and Mingi was just glad that he hadn’t really done much to warrant his boss to question why.

San wasn’t working that day so Mingi was able to drive straight home, march inside and yell out that they were expecting a baby to his husband. San nearly dropped his cup in shock before he placed it down and ran straight into his husband's arms. The two of them cried happy tears then, they would be fathers and be able to have their own new light. They went out that night to celebrate and think of a way to tell family and friends.  
Mingi’s family was beyond happy to hear about a new grandchild that was coming on the way. Mingi’s mother had been so happy that she held onto San for the rest of the time they were to be over telling him various different things that they should do during the process of the surrogate’s pregnancy. Mingi’s father had definitely been shocked and delighted, he made sure to hug his son multiple times and tell him just how proud he was of him and how happy this grandchild would make him.

San’s family burst into tears as soon as they found out. San’s mother cried for how her own baby was expecting a baby, and San’s father cried out of pure happiness. They proceeded to ask as many possible questions afterwards such as what gender they wanted, how far along the surrogate was, etc.  
After the families had been told, San and Mingi had to make sure to inform friends early on this time instead of waiting like how they did with the wedding. They didn’t want it to be anything extra, so when they had all gathered one friday night at Seonghwa and Hongjoong’s house for a casual get together, San had “accidentally” knocked out an ultrasound picture from his bag, things turned into chaos quickly.

The adults were quiet for maybe two seconds before Hongjoong and Yunho both stood up and ran over to Mingi and San immediately gasping out their congratulations. Someone had let out a loud scream and other voices had just yelled out various sounds of shock. Wooyoung, who had been upstairs, ran downstairs at the loud sounds the adults were making. Wooyoung loved babies so much and had proclaimed himself the babies favorite person already. The adults shooed Wooyoung back upstairs and then everyone was once again back on Mingi and San. Yeosang and Hongjoong asked who the godfather would be,implying that they should be it because they “deserved it '', Seonghwa and Yunho had been looking up baby clothes already, and many more questions were thrown out. About an hour later and after seemingly endless questions, the initial excitement died down until Yunho screamed out that he had a shopping cart of over twenty baby neutral clothes on one of his clothing apps and all the adults had gathered around to view what he had picked out.

San and Mingi met with the surrogate once a week, they usually ate at a restaurant or just went to a cafe. They weren’t able to make many doctor visits, so she always filled them in on anything that was happening. Mingi and San both agreed on keeping the gender a secret until birth despite both of their families wanting to know as soon as possible. When the donor had reached the five month mark, she excitedly told them that she herself did know the gender but would not let anyone know at all, keeping their wishes to make things a surprise. The couple had also finished the lease on their apartment early on in the pregnancy and decided to move into a small townhome. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, it was just the right size and they were both happy with the move. They had enlisted the help of friends to help them move in and help decorate the nursery. They had all been more than happy to help out and had actually ended up sending the couple out for a day in the city so they could relax. They might not have been actually carrying the baby, but expecting a child was still a lot of stress and planning, especially for first time parents.

Mingi and San arrived at their new home that night just a little drunk, but very happy to see that everything had been set perfectly. They examined every inch of the nursery and looked at each other with big happy smiles of joy as they listed out things that they would be able to do with their baby here in just a few months.  
Fall was in full motion as the expected due date for the baby was approaching. Mingi and San had multiple nights where they would cuddle up next to their fireplace and watch a movie as they talked about the future and anything else that crossed their minds.

November rolled around and the couple’s house had been fully decked out with baby equipment, clothes and multiple gifts from friends and family. They never held a baby shower but that surely wouldn’t stop family and friends from coming over every day with overstuffed bags. They had told everyone that they were only expecting one child and that they really would not need all of the stuff they were being given, but that always went in one ear and out the other.  
The house had been baby proofed anywhere possible and there was a constant feeling of excitement that was always present when anything baby related had been brought up.  
The baby was due any day now, and so there was always an uncertainty to what exactly would be happening each day. San had been with the surrogate multiple times during the ending of the pregnancy to make sure she was comfortable and feeling fine. Mingi had been busy working his ass off in preparation for the two month leave he would be taking from work. He was actually quite lucky to be allowed to work from home once the leave was up as well. He had been promoted to a higher position which allowed him to rarely be around the office. San was also taking a leave from work, although not as long as his job was already easily flexible and he didn’t work too often in the week anyways.

With the impending due date, questions of what names the couple had picked out had been asked constantly. To be honest, the couple had started looking at some names, but decided that they would wait until they actually got to meet their child to name them. Things were quite chaotic, family and friends were always in and out of the couple’s house trying to make sure everything was ready, and while the couple appreciated it, they really just wanted to take the lead now. So they had to nicely ask people to stop coming over abruptly and had to make sure to tell everyone that when something was to happen, they would tell them.

Once that had settled Mingi and San found things to be much more calm and peaceful. They were calling the surrogate everyday if they couldn’t meet up to ask how she was feeling and to just talk about what they had done that day. They always made sure to express how thankful they were for her and how much happiness that she would be giving them.

November 24 was a monday and things were as usual. Mingi and San both left for work after they kissed each other goodbye. They came back home once they had finished up and watched a film together while they ate dinner. Then they called up the surrogate and talked for about an hour before they hung up and went to bed.

November 25 was relatively normal at first. San was off that day and had received a call from the surrogate that she was feeling some fake contractions but the doctor had told her that it was just a sign meaning that the baby could come any minute now. San immediately called Mingi after and told him to not worry but that things were going to happen very soon. Mingi was in a giddy mood the rest of the work day. He was so excited that he made a stop by a bakery before he went home to buy a whole cake in Sans favorite flavour. San of course laughed at him for buying the entire cake and not just a few slices but nonetheless enjoyed the sweet gesture.

On November 26 the couple both had later work shifts that started in the afternoon, so they happily enjoyed having a lazy morning wrapped up in each other’s arms. Around twelve Mingi had finally made his way out of bed to finally get ready for work. He was in the middle of washing his face when he heard a loud screech come from San. Mingi immediately scrambled out of the bathroom and into the bedroom with half of his face covered in suds. When San shouted out that the surrogate started having contractions and was admitted into the hospital. Mingi instantly cursed out loud and ran back into the bathroom to finish washing his face.

At the hospital, things were actually relatively calm. San and Mingi were surely having an out of body experience on the way as they were on their way to the place where their child would be brought into the world. But as soon as they both arrived and were led into the temporary room they had the surrogate placed in, they snapped out of it and asked her how she was feeling. The surrogate’s own husband was in the room with them and Mingi and San had both made sure to have some conversations with him and to express the same thanks to him about letting his wife carry their child. He was a nice gentleman and got along quite well with the both of them.  
The couple had made sure to call into work and inform them that they were at the hospital. After that both families were called. Mingi and San’s mother had been so excited and immediately asked when they would be able to go and see them. Unfortunately nobody except the to be parent’s would be allowed in during the actual birth but once things were to settle down family and friends would be allowed to come in to visit.

The couple informed all of their close friends on what was happening and a lot of happy emotions had been sent back along with demands of updates. After that all had been done, the couple set down the phones and focused back on the woman holding their child.  
A few hours later and not much had really progressed, but the contractions were still pretty regular. Mingi and San had been told to go out and get something to eat as there was a possibility they would be there for a while. The couple was very reluctant at first, but once they had been assured multiple times that if anything was to happen they would be told immediately, they eventually headed out to grab some food.

Many hours later after the sun had already set the couple was still patiently waiting for any kind of progress, but it seemed like the surrogate had only been dilated a few more inches, and not anything where she could begin pushing. Mingi and San decided that they would take turns sleeping on the small couch in the hospital room as they were very content not going anywhere until they officially had a baby in their arms.

It was around five in the morning on November 27 when San was passed out on the couch with Mingi also asleep in a sitting position next to him holding his hand. The two of them had been woken up to a loud shout of pain. They both quickly scrambled over to the bed where the surrogate was in very obvious pain. Her husband had called for nurses and Mingi and San couldn’t help but be worried. The nurses rushed in quickly and immediately went to check on the woman in labor. When one nurse finally announced that she was good to start pushing the parent’s to be felt a rush of emotions like never before. Any minute now a child would be brought into this world that would be theirs. San grabbed on to Mingi’s hand and squeezed it tightly as they moved back slightly so the nurses could move around and help adjust the women into a proper position.

It didn’t happen immediately, but everything felt so quick and sudden that by the time 6:58 rolled around and a baby started crying, Mingi felt like he had blinked. His eyes were clouded with tears and his arms were occupied with holding his husband, but he could still hear and see clearly. Loud cries bounced around the white hospital room as a nurse congratulated them on having a baby boy. San was near tears as he held onto Mingi and kept his eyes glued to the wailing infant that was being cleaned off by a nurse. He turned his attention to Mingi after the baby had calmed down and pulled him into a kiss.

The couple hadn’t been able to hold their son just yet as the nurses had swiftly taken him away for some testing. The couple wanted to be mad but it gave them time to talk to the surrogate and think about a name. The surrogate was already beginning to get ready for leaving the hospital seeing as she did not need to stay once she had given birth. San and Mingi would be staying for at least two days until they could finally go home.

The couple had thanked the surrogate many times and had exchanged so many kind and positive words that she had to tell them that they did not need to keep going. They softly laughed at that. She left about half an hour later and the couple had been relocated to a different room. They didn’t even have any time to start discussing names or to even think about contacting anyone yet when the nurse came back in with their son in a small container. She told them that he had been just above the line of being underweight but to not be too concerned about it. A few other bits of information had been exchanged before the nurse left them alone. San was the first to reach out and gather the infant in his arms. There was a bed in the room they had been placed in so San rested against the headboard next to Mingi as he carefully shifted the baby in arms until he felt secure holding him.

The air was still and no words were being spoken, the two new parents had a permanent fixed gaze on their son. A small tuft of black hair sat on top of the infant’s head which complemented the fair skin he had. The two of them probably sat there for around ten minutes just admiring their son. Mingi eventually grabbed both of their phones and snapped a quick picture of San holding the sleeping baby and sent a picture off to family and friends with a simple caption that just said welcome new baby and the time of birth.

Neither were expecting a response just yet as it was still kind of early but calls and texts had come through immediately and before they could even fully blink both sets of grandparents were on their way to the hospital. Neither San or Mingi had really talked about any names, but Mingi had the name Jongho stored in his mind for ages, and when San assured him that he loved the name, they made it official.

By the time family had arrived it was nine in the morning and Mingi and San had already filled out all necessary paperwork. They had been admiring Jongho and taking turns holding him. His eyes hadn’t yet opened but they hadn’t really noticed as they were still in a trance. They were knocked out of that trance when the door was opened and their parents had all rushed inside. Both mothers had immediately hugged their respective son and started gushing over Jongho. It was a big deal to have the first born in a family be a male, and although everyone would have been just as excited if the baby had ended up being a female, it just made things even more excitable for the grandparents. San’s mother ended up holding Jongho first and sitting down on a couch next to the bed. She and her husband sat admiring their new grandchild and they simply could not help the big smiles they both had plastered on their faces. After San’s father had a chance to hold his grandson he handed him to Mingi’s parents and walked over to the new parents to congratulate them.

The grandparents ended up sticking around for a few more hours before they had to leave.They really did not want to leave, but there were already plans made for when they could go and visit again. They left with tight hugs and a demand for more pictures. Soon a nurse had come back in to check on Jongho again and as soon as she was in she went back out. San was busy posting on social media when he heard Mingi gasp from next to him. He looked at Jongho out of instinct and immediately knew why Mingi had gasped. Jongho had finally opened his eyes, albeit not that much, but they were open and looking right up at his parents' eyes.

“Hi baby,” San spoke softly as he brushed his finger against Jongho’s cheek. San then leaned into Mingi as the two of them spoke in quiet voices to their son telling him how much they loved him and how happy they were. They didn’t stop when they noticed his eyes closing again after a little bit, instead opting to continue talking. They were so in love with each other and Jongho. They were a family now.

Two days later they were allowed to go home after Jongho had passed all of the necessary steps the hospital had in place before an infant could leave. Mingi dressed Jongho up in a onesie and a light brown bear outfit to go on top of it. The two parents had made sure to bundle him up as it was very cold outside. San had ran out to the car to grab the car seat they had bought a while back and eventually came back in with it in hand. They buckled Jongho in and finally headed down to the front desk so they could finish signing out.

The drive home was longer than what it typically would have been, but they would not be taking any chances of reckless driving when their son was sat in the back. About twenty minutes later they finally arrived back home. San lifted up the carrier with an awake Jongho in it and carefully unlocked the house door with one hand and walked inside. Mingi followed right behind him and as soon as the door was closed, they both let out a big sigh. There were so many checkups at the hospital and they weren’t able to be with Jongho all the time, so to finally be home and in a place where they could have constant eyes on him, they just felt much better.

The couple’s friends had already been asking when they could go over to meet Jongho. Ever since they had received the message that he was born they were all so excited to be able to see the newest addition in their little group. It had been quite a few years since Wooyoung was a toddler, so having a baby was like a gold mine for the adults who couldn’t help but gush over anything baby related. Which happened to be all of them. Mingi and San told them that it was fine if they came over, but that they definitely could not have everyone over at once.  
Seonghwa and Hongjoong came over first with their son Wooyoung. They were all very mature when they had handled Jongho which was something the new parents were kind of scared about. Luckily Hongjoong had told them that he had given Wooyoung a mandatory baby holding lesson with a bag of flour before they came over. Seonghwa had publicly announced that Jongho was cuter than his own kid which made Wooyoung protest in defense. He quickly got over it when Seonghwa threatened to take his iPad away.

San would be lying if he said that he wasn’t the most concerned for Yunho and Yeosang to come over and meet Jongho. Things had gone relatively okay with everyone else but this specific bunch was so unpredictable that they really could not guess what the outcome would be like. When San opened the door the day that they came over, Yeosang had marched right on in asking where his new favourite nephew was. Of course none of the couple’s friends were actually related to each other, but a lot of them had grown up together or just been around for years, so everyone automatically became an uncle when a new kid came around. San was about to tell Yeosang that Mingi was in the middle of feeding him when Yunho walked in holding a big stack of presents in his arms and a smile on his face.

When Yunho was handed Jongho after he had been fed he walked on autopilot mode towards the nursery as he proclaimed that he was dressed horribly and needed a new outfit. San had a slight look of offense but it quickly went away when Yunho exclaimed that he thought Jongho looked adorable anyways. Once they left San had felt very relieved that everything went well which was unlike the usual chaotic mood the couple had. The house was calm for another few minutes before a cry came through on the baby monitor.

In the blink of an eye, it had already been almost a month since Jongho had come into Mingi and San’s life. Christmas was around the corner and the couple had been thrilled to take as many baby christmas pictures as possible. One of Jongho asleep in the empty space beneath the tree, another with a very large Santa hat atop his head, they simply enjoyed taking pictures of their son and sharing them online. It was when Mingi had been setting up a mini family photo shoot for the three of them when Jongho first smiled. San was holding him and gushing over him with a large smile when a very brief smile from Jongho had been returned. San was absolutely in love with that smile and decided that it was his favorite thing in the world, right next to Mingi’s smile of course. San had been doing research and he was surprised to see his little baby smile so early on, but he guessed it came about quickly because both he and Mingi were always smiling. Even at two in the morning when they woke up to loud wails coming from right next to their bed where they put his crib temporarily, they were smiling. They might have been very tired from losing a lot of sleep, but Jongho wasn’t as horrible of a crier as many other babies were, and for that they were grateful. Even if he still woke them up at least three times during the night.

Because both San and Mingi were on leave from work, they had plenty of time to just laze around and have moments of close bonding. Mingi often walked around with his shirt off so he could rest Jongho against his chest. It was “just for bonding” in the words of Mingi, but San knew he always just enjoyed seeing how flushed he would get when his husband walked around with no shirt on.  
Babies really don’t do much in the first couple of months except for sleeping constantly and always wanting to be fed. San couldn’t help but be envious of every time his son got to go down for a nap. While Mingi and San might have been out of work for a little bit, they still had a house to maintain. There was usually a chore that needed to be done so the two of them would switch between who got to do chores and who got to nap until they were woken up. Luckily there weren't too many visits from people after the initial visits. San and Mingi were glad that they got to have their own time and space away from family and friends, who were constantly ready to take Jongho for themselves.

The annual ‘big ass christmas party-named by yeosang’ (yes that was the name) was approaching. When Wooyoung had been added to the mix years ago the name had been adjusted to ‘big round christmas party-named by yeosang’. This meant all people in the group of friends would gather at one place and exchange gifts. Well, that was what was supposed to happen. When it was just the adults they would all get piss drunk, but again, when Wooyoung came along, they had opted to do some gift exchanges that eventually bled into a mix between white elephant and family bets. After all these years San and Mingi were still not sure just how exactly they were meant to play this ‘game’ but they usually just rolled along with it and brought a gift for all of the couples. This year was more exciting than the others though, this would be the first year that they would be bringing a child with them.

They often post frequent updates on social media about Jongho, but their friends were no doubt going to pass Jongho around for a while as Mingi and San were going to be pestered with many questions.

The day of ‘big round christmas party-named by yeosang’ had rolled around and San had been sorting through the various baby clothes for nearly an hour trying to decide on what he would dress Jongho in. The families usually came in matching pajamas, but there had been no luck in finding any matching clothes to adult ones. Mingi eventually walked into the nursery and picked out a plain onesie with matching pants and long sleeve shirt that had small snowflake designs on them. San huffed because he had been eyeing that outfit but he was stuck between all of the other cute clothes. Jongho had just fallen asleep but he luckily didn’t care too much for movement while he slept, a sign that he would be a heavy sleeper when he got bigger for sure.

Once San had dressed his baby up and taken many pictures, he lifted up Jongho and brought him into the living room where Mingi was finishing wrapping the gifts they bought for everyone else. San placed Jongho in his car seat and made sure to keep a warm blanket on top of him. He also placed a hat on his head and then stuck a pacifier in his mouth.

The couple eventually left with San driving the car as Mingi stayed in the back. They arrived at Hongjoong and Seonghwa’s house where the party was being hosted this year and had not been surprised to see that they were the last ones to arrive. They could already hear loud screeching and yelling coming from inside the house and they both said a silent prayer that Jongho would be in one of the heavy sleeping modes that he quite frequently was in so he wouldn’t wake up. Mingi picked up the baby carrier and got out of the car. Once San got all of the gifts they both headed to the front door. Mingi rang the doorbell and in an instant the loud music had been lowered and a loud yell had quieted any loud screeching noises. Hongjoong opened the door with a smile and invited them inside. The living room was the first room you walked into in the Park house, so as soon as Mingi and San came inside all of the adults had seen them immediately and greeted them.

The party had a lively vibe to it and San and Mingi were glad to be able to catch up with friends and exchange stories. Jongho was still sleeping when they had arrived so they kept him in his carrier with the hood up. Everyone had already eaten and now the adults were sipping on some wine downstairs while Wooyoung played on the xbox that was upstairs. Seonghwa had just started telling his story about how Wooyoung had managed to get his head stuck in between the poles on the staircase when a string of whines started coming from the baby carrier that led ino loud cries quickly. San quickly reached down and undid all of the straps to lift up the distressed baby to rest against his torso. Almost instantly the cries quieted down and Jongho was no longer upset. Yunho had commented on how cute it was that Jongho had just cried for his dad. Other comments of praise had been said after that towards San and Mingi which eventually led the adults into a discussion about the youngest child that had currently been gripping Yeosang’s thumb so tight it looked like it hurt.San and Mingi were more than happy to share cute stories about Jongho, not that they had many, so they eventually ended up just letting everyone hold him as he was now awake. Hongjoong had made sure to whine to his husband once he was holding onto Jongho that he missed having a baby. Seonghwa agreed but they had both agreed that they were okay with just Wooyoung a long time ago, so the conversation ended there. At one point Wooyoung had come downstairs and asked if he could bring Jongho upstairs so he could watch him play games, and pretty much all of the adults immediately rejected his request with various comments of how they just could not trust a baby with ‘that heathen’.

When San and Mingi got back home that night after the party was over they put Jongho down in his crib and quickly washed up for bed themselves.  
Christmas had been really special. The couple had spent many holidays and Christmases together before, but things were totally different now that they had a little one to add into the mix. They didn’t really buy things for Jongho as there was no way he would really have much interest in anything, so they just ended up splurging on a few items that they had wanted for a while. Both San and Mingi had been wanting a pet for awhile, so for Christmas they just ended up adopting an older cat that they named glitter. Glitter was a male cat, but it was the name he already had and the couple loved it, so they just kept it. Christmas day was a relaxing day spent next to the fireplace with movies from Hallmark playing.

New years had passed and too soon for their liking both Mingi and San had to return to work. Luckily Mingi was able to work from home for a majority of his job so they didn’t have to worry about finding a daycare for Jongho just yet. San never had a super heavy work schedule either, despite making a good amount of pay, so he usually only worked about four days a week. So things hadn’t changed too much, but time seemed to be moving by very quickly.One day Jongho was a teeny little two months old, but then spring came up and was now already coming to an end and summer was approaching. Jongho was already almost six months old and he was growing every day. He made the cutest baby sounds and had stopped crying as often in his sleep. Jongho’s favorite thing currently was this giant stuffed teddy bear that Yunho had randomly brought over one day. At first it was just sitting in the nursery without much of a purpose, but then one day when San was having trouble with getting Jongho to sleep, he laid him down on the torso section of the bear so he could quickly run around and grab something. When he turned back Jongho was dead asleep with both of his hands grabbing onto the teddy bear’s fur.

The bear was brought out into the living room where a majority of Jongho’s time was spent. He enjoyed holding onto the fur of the bear and laying on top of it. Mingi usually rested his little head in between the bears legs and made some jokes to San about the bear giving birth to Jongho. San usually told him that the joke wasn’t funny but he would still end up laughing anyways.  
Jongho was the absolute sweetest little thing ever and he would never fail to make his parent’s smile. Smiling was something that once Jongho got a decent hand of, he constantly did. He would constantly giggle and laugh at the silly faces Mingi and San made towards him. During Mingi’s breaks from work he typically went out for a walk with Jongho strapped to his chest with the front baby carrier Yunho and Yeosang had gifted them from before Jongho was even born. On the weekends the family of three would typically go out on a picnic or hike together. Mingi and San were as happy as they could be and life seemed to be folding out nicely for them.

That was until Jongho had ended up in the hospital due to an allergic reaction to nuts that hadn’t been there before. The nurse had explained that allergies are not always present straight away and that they can sprout up at various ages. Jongho hadn’t actually consumed any nuts but they had been incorporated in the meal that San and Mingi had ordered for dinner and even just being around them sparked a reaction. The two parents were absolutely frightened when Jongho’s tiny body had started flushing red all over his arms and face and then when he started making small noises of discomfort the two parents had automatically taken him out into the car and rushed him to the hospital. It was the first time Jongho had to be taken to the hospital for a reason that wasn’t a checkup and it terrified the both of them. They had been given many information sheets and pamphlets on what they should look out for and what to avoid having Jongho around. They had also been recommended to invest in some epinephrine devices that would be usual for any situations that could happen in the future. San and Mingi went home with a healthy baby and a new list of rules for what could and could not come into the house.

As Jongho got older he hadn’t grown as much as he was supposed to. The doctors had assured both San and Mingi that it was perfectly normal and that he was just a little behind the average weight for where he should have been. They were instructed to just keep things as they were and continue what they were doing. They both felt more relaxed after what they had been informed. They just had a smaller baby than normal, and that was okay because he wasn’t outgrowing clothes as fast as he would have been which saved them money in the long run. He was also just very small and adorable and they both would have loved him no matter what.

When Jongho was around seven months Mingi and San had been itching to go out for a date night and enjoy some adult time. They loved Jongho, but babies were so exhausting and required so much attention that they couldn’t help but want to go out for a night. San had made the mistake of asking all of their friends in the parents group chat they had, if any of them could look after Jongho for a night. Everybody had immediately offered themselves and had started listing out reasons why they should be picked. Even Seonghwa, who never checked his phone, was replying with his ‘impressive’ two years of babysitting in highschool credentials. San was going to tell them to not fight and that they would just hire somebody but Mingi had told him to let them all know that everybody would get the opportunity to watch him which settled the mini arguments over who was a better babysitter.  
Mingi and San were sad at first to leave their baby behind, but they found that as soon as they had dropped him off at Yeosang and Yunho’s house, they had felt a familiar rush of excitement that was similar to what they both used to feel before they were even married.

More time had passed by and Jongho was already nearly ten months old. San and Mingi were so glad to see that their little sunshine was still happy, but they still had many concerns. They had noticed a few months ago that Jongho wasn’t really growing too much. They had been told that he was perfectly fine, but the nearly ten month old was still fitting into the clothing size listed as “up to six months”. Not only that but Jongho had also not started crawling or attempting to lift himself up on furniture. Mingi and San were not sure what they had been doing wrong. They had given Jongho tons of tummy time which was meant to help with crawling and lifting his head. But no matter how much the two parents talked to professionals about Jongho’s health they had continued to be told that he was just a late developer and that it had nothing to do with anything they were doing. Doctors and nurses mentioned that a good amount of babies were behind in growth but it had nothing to do with future growth or how any vital organs were developing. They would likely end up with a lot of people confused about his age though. This came true when preparations for Jongho’s first birthday had finally come about.Many people questioned if Jongho was even turning one which had become quite annoying, but the couple got over it soon enough.

If San and Mingi weren’t a total mess about how old their baby was getting (as if one is an old age) then they were busy planning his birthday party. They originally made no plans for anything extravagant, but San and Mingi’s mothers had come over one day to have lunch and had refused to leave if they didn’t promise a large party for Jongho. So with the help of a friend who worked with event management, the two parents started planning the birthday party. Jongho didn’t have any friends, he was just a baby, but there was going to be a large crowd with all of Mingi and San’s friends and families invited.  
After Mingi and San picked out certain themes and colours and such, their friends who had been helping with the party took over and told them to stop worrying about it. The couple used up that free time to go out on family outings with their still tiny, non crawling, almost one year old.

Jongho’s birthday party was a big success with a crowd of nearly forty (for a one year old? I’ve seen bigger so not the weirdest thing). Multiple gifts and baby trinkets had been brought in as gifts and Jongho had probably been held by everybody in attendance that day. There was a cake that had made its way all over Jongho’s tiny body. The birthday boy had a great time patting his tummy with frosting as he giggled from the funny sounds it was making. Family and friends were cooing and taking various pictures while Mingi and San held their tears at the back. They couldn't believe how far along they have come. From Mingi feeling like he wouldn’t meet anyone until he was much older, to having a nameless relationship with San after they met at a friends wedding and made out. To get married to the love of his life and then bringing a child into the world with him as well. The first year of “dating” felt like bliss and every year after just got better and better, and Mingi couldn’t imagine celebrating his son’s first birthday with anybody else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry its been a while again, online school is rough but i am almost done. to make up in the meantime, i give you this long chapter i hope you like it.


	20. park family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> family ateez but this is just hongjoong + baby jongho
> 
> this is not edited, actually none of them are i should've mentioned that :/

mornings in the park household were never quiet. they always started off with seonghwa waking up all the children who went to school and getting them dressed, while hongjoong made breakfast. the children were calm until they finished getting dressed, they always ran down with bouts of energy or loud yelling. 

hongjoong always scolded his kids to be quieter in the morning, but his words fell onto deaf ears. while he made sure the children didn’t get food over themselves or the kitchen, seonghwa got himself dressed and ready for work. 

by the time seonghwa came downstairs dressed and ready, the children were done eating and being shooed into the bathrooms to finish cleaning up. for the short five minutes the two went without any hyper children, hongjoong and seonghwa would quickly scarf down their own breakfast with light talk in between about any events going on that day. 

when the kids came back downstairs, hongjoong would always have to adjust some clothes or wipe off remaining foam around one of the kids mouth. he then kissed each one of his kids on the forehead before he kissed his husband goodbye and bid them farewell at the door. seonghwa always dropped off the kids at school before he went to work. on a good day, everyone was out before 8 am. 

hongjoong would then clean up the mess from breakfast before he himself got dressed for the day. after freshening himself up, hongjoong would walk to jonghos room, where the baby was usually still sleeping. hongjoong had many babies, but jongho was his actual baby, he was just nine months old. when jongho was a newborn, his sleep schedule was all over the place and he would wake at the slightest noise. but he had slowly been changing into a heavy sleeper, which for now eased hongjoong from worrying about the noise level in the morning, but he knew it would bring some issues in the future. 

hongjoong leaned over the crib jongho was sleeping in, gently brushing his cheek so he wouldn’t startle his baby. jongho didn’t stir at all, and after a couple more tries, hongjoong just bent down and scooped up his baby into his arms, resting him on his hip. jongho let out some whines and fussed a bit in hongjoongs hold before his head rested comfortably on his papas shoulder. hongjoong smiled to himself and brought a hand up to rest on the back of jonghos head protectively. hongjoong carefully went downstairs towards the living room. he laid jongho down on one of the play mats they kept for the kids, and sat down on the couch. 

hongjoong then replied to emails, paid bills and caught up with general news on his laptop for a good half hour before he heard small cries coming from jongho who was finally waking up properly. hongjoong quickly set his laptop to the side and walked over to pick up his distressed baby. hongjoong brought his baby close to his torso and rubbed his back to soothe him. 

after jongho settled down, hongjoong placed him into his highchair in the kitchen and put down some soft blocks for jongho to play with while hongjoong made him some baby appropriate breakfast. jongho had a few teeth already grown, but he wasn’t enjoying solid food yet, so they were trying to slowly incorporate more and more solids into his meals. they werent sure if it was working, but jongho was still happy and healthy so that was good. 

after breakfast, jongho was given a bath, seeing as his food ended up on his body more than in his mouth. hongjoong always enjoyed bathing jongho the most, his other kids were horrible when it came to bath time, ever since they were babies, none of them seemed to be a fan of water. jongho, however, had never complained or cried in a bath yet, and hongjoong was hoping it would stay that way. 

with jongho dressed and ready for the day, hongjoong placed him down in the living room on his baby swing so he could play with his toys that hung from it while hongjoong did some chores. of course he made sure that he always had eyes on his baby just incase anything were to happen. hongjoong, once done with cleaning up, walked into the living room and smiled at his baby who was gurgling around a soft block he had in his mouth. hongjoong laughed at his curious little baby and swooped down to pick him up.he placed two kisses on both of jonghos chubby cheeks and then adjusted his hold on him to where jongho rested on his hip.  
“what do you say baby should we go out to the park?” hongjoong questioned as he walked towards jonghos nursery to grab a pair of shoes for him. jongho let out some ahs and baby talk excitedly which made hongjoong smile lovingly at his son. 

the park wasn’t far from the park house, so hongjoong grabbed the stroller out from the closet and strapped jongho in so he could walk there. luckily it was a really beautiful day, and jongho loved going outside. at the park, hongjoong unstrapped jongho from the stroller and placed him into the baby swing. hongjoong felt nothing but love as he heard the infectious laughter bubbling out of jongho as he swung. he remembers when his other babies were all this small, and it made him miss the days when they were fully dependent on him and seonghwa. hongjoong stayed at the park for about an hour, letting jongho enjoy the fresh air. it was when they were in the sandpit and jongho had accidentally gotten sand in his eyes, that hongjoong decided on going back home. he picked up a distressed jongho and quickly fished around in his baby bag for some wipes. once he found them, he gently helped remove any leftover sand from his eye area. hongjoong gently bounced jongho before he placed him back in his stroller. he reached into his baby bag and brought out a pre made bottle he had ready. he handed the now grumpy baby the bottle and jongho quickly latched on and suckled his drink. hongjoong let out a sigh of relief that he didn’t have to deal with a tantrum. he pulled the hood down on the stroller, to hide the harsh sun from bothering jongho and then left the park, heading for home. 

by the time hongjoong arrived back home, jongho had fallen asleep. once inside, he carefully brought jongho into the nursery and put him down for a short nap. he would need lunch soon, so he wouldn't be asleep for too long. 

in the middle of preparing lunch, seonghwa came back home, having finished up his work early that day. the two relished in the quiet time they had. it was rare for them to have privacy or time away from the kids, so they took what they could get. they only managed to get about fifteen minutes in before the baby monitor turned on and sounds of jongho waking up drifted into the kitchen. seonghwa quickly rushed off to soothe the baby before he could start crying. 

seonghwa came back into the kitchen with a happy baby in his arms. hongjoong walked over and cooed over his son, always happy to see him smiling. seonghwa played around with jongho while hongjoong finished up lunch. 

a little bit later, when lunch was finished, hongjoong and seonghwa settled on the couch in the living room, jongho on the floor in front of them. they turned on the tv and cuddled into each other, enjoying the time they were able to spend with one another. 

hongjoong usually picked up the kids from school, but seonghwa and him both drove to pick them all up and surprise them with some ice cream today. the kids were all excited and made some noises of excitement, which startled awake jongho who had been sleeping again. Seonghwa scolded all of the kids as best as he could while he focused on the road, while hongjoong turned around in his chair and reached back to try and soothe his distressed baby. 

a short three minutes later the family arrived at the ice cream place, and hongjoong made quick work of getting out of the car and grabbing jongho who had still been screaming his lungs out. seonghwa headed inside with the other kids while hongjoong stayed outside with jongho. it took a couple of minutes but eventually jongho wore himself tired, and hongjoong quickly dug around in his bag for a pacifier. with jongho calm and starting to drift off to sleep again, hongjoong settled on just keeping jongho in his arms. If he got tired of holding him, he always had seonghwa, who could hold him up for much longer than hongjoong usually could. 

later on, after the family had arrived back home, things calmed down for the evening. the children had been relatively well behaved today, something that was out of the ordinary for them. seonghwa had forced hongjoong to take a nap and that he would be making dinner and getting all the children ready for bed. hongjoong started to protest, but seonghwa had picked him up bridal style and walked in to their room where he dumped him on the bed.  
hongjoong did end up have a nice nap, that was until he was woken up by a screaming baby and a flustered husband standing in the doorway to his bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall's comments make me smile :)

**Author's Note:**

> I do not claim to be a good writer or good with grammar please don't attack me. thanks for reading


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